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Ukraine had its Black Sea ports blocked following Russia's invasion in February 2022.
Tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural imports may need to be reintroduced if an influx of goods that is putting pressure on prices in European Union markets cannot be stopped by other means, the premiers of five eastern states said on Friday. In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen published on a Polish government website, the prime ministers of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia said the scale of the increase in products including oil grains, eggs, poultry and sugar, had been “unprecedented”.
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Ukraine, one of the world's biggest grain exporters, had its Black Sea ports blocked following Russia's invasion in February 2022 and found alternative shipping routes through European Union states Poland and Romania. Logistical bottlenecks mean that large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the EU, have ended up in Central European states, affecting prices and sales for local farmers.
In the letter, the prime ministers called for a variety of measures to limit market distortions caused by Ukrainian imports, but said that if they were not successful, tariffs and tariff quotas should be reintroduced. “We will support Ukraine, but we will do it wisely and, above all, we will put the interest of the country and Polish farmers first,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Twitter.
Among the measures proposed in the letter was a joint solution between the European Union and the World Food Program to ensure that Ukrainian grain does not end up on European Union markets. They reiterated calls for more funds to help farmers and for faster development of transport infrastructure to help transport goods from Ukraine. They also called for changes to laws on agricultural imports that would help regulate the volume and direction of the influx of agricultural products.
Source: Seane Lennon | agrolink
