The EU found a way to import Ukrainian grain

Negotiations on unblocking the import of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU between Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the European Commission are ongoing. The EU has offered a financial aid package to five neighboring countries of Ukraine in exchange for the lifting of restrictive measures on Ukrainian agricultural goods. The relevant information was published by the press service of the Ukrainian Government.

The report states that the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, announced the relevant information after a meeting with representatives of Ukraine and five EU member states, which were faced with the problems of excess imports of Ukrainian grain. We will remind that four of them - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria - previously decided to suspend the import of Ukrainian agricultural products.

"These countries will receive the package proposed by the European Commission on the condition that they cancel their unilateral measures," Valdis Dombrovskis emphasized.

He noted that the European Commission understands the importance of quickly applying a common EU approach, rather than unilateral decisions that may lead to the emergence of new numerous bans that will endanger the internal European market.

Meanwhile, during bilateral consultations, Kyiv and Warsaw have already agreed to renew the import of Ukrainian agricultural products through the territory of Poland.

"We managed to find mechanisms to ensure that not a single ton of Ukrainian grain remained in Poland, and agricultural products were transported through Poland further to Europe or Polish ports on the Baltic Sea," said Robert Telus, Poland's Minister of A&C.

In turn, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Mykola Solskyi, during a briefing for journalists, confirmed that the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Poland will be restored. He explained that Poland will apply additional control to transit through its territory.

Despite all this, the European Union has no intention of stopping the import of agricultural products from Ukraine and is ready to financially support those countries that are faced with the problems of a surplus of Ukrainian grain. Brussels wants to guarantee the transit of agricultural goods to third countries. Among the emergency measures proposed by the EU to protect farmers from countries neighboring Ukraine are the following: agricultural products will be able to be transported through the territory of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria only by transit, and sold already in other EU countries or third countries. The participants of the briefing emphasized that there is currently no question of renewing customs duties on Ukrainian imports, because the European Commission intends to extend the duty-free regime for Ukraine for another year.

We will remind that the governments of five EU countries decided to stop the import of Ukrainian grain after mass protests by local farmers who demanded to protect the domestic market, as the influx of agricultural products from Ukraine led to a sharp drop in purchase prices. For example, in 2021, Poland imported approximately 3,000 tons of wheat from Ukraine. In 2022, this indicator was already 500,000 tons. Corn — about 6,000 tons in 2021 and almost 2 million tons in 2022. Therefore, among the measures to resolve this situation, the European Commission promises to provide five EU countries with a second package of financial assistance in the amount of 100 million euros.