The European Union plans to abolish the preferential regime of autonomous trade measures in trade with Ukraine starting June 5. This was announced by Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, which currently holds the EU presidency. He noted:
This is reported by Finway
“We are returning to the situation that existed before the war, in terms of border rules”
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Tusk emphasized that despite Poland’s desire to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, this should not come at the expense of Polish producers.
Consequences for the Ukrainian Agricultural Sector
Oleksandra Avramenko, a representative of the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business, stated that the quotas for importing Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU after the end of the “trade visa-free regime” will apply to not seven, but thirty goods. Ukrainian exporters will only have access to 7/12 of the annual quotas that were in effect before the war, which corresponds to seven months until the end of the year for each product line.
This means a significant reduction in export volumes: wheat — from 6 million tons to 1 million tons, corn — from 4.7 million tons to 650 thousand tons, sugar — to only 20 thousand tons.
Review of Trade Conditions
Avramenko also pointed out that due to internal political processes in some EU countries, the European Commission will only be able to begin reviewing trade conditions with Ukraine under the association agreement in the summer.