Ukraine is waiting for all EU countries to ban Russian agricultural products

The European Union officially imports millions of tons of grain from the aggressor country of Russia, while Polish farmers continue to show acts of vandalism against Ukrainian agricultural products. As Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine, emphasized, there is currently no ban on the import of agricultural products from Russia in Europe. In general, in the structure of the total import of agricultural products by the European Union, out of 2.5 billion tons, almost 1.7 million tons are Russian goods.

"This means that Russia remains a trading partner for the EU regarding agricultural products, which is nonsense for us. If there are farmers' protests against imports, imports from Russia should be banned," the government official believes.

He reminded that the Sejm of Latvia approved a ban on the import of Russian agricultural products into the territory of the country, and currently Ukraine expects the same measures from the member states of the European Union.

Indeed, the other day the Seimas of Latvia approved in the final reading amendments to the law on agriculture and rural development, which prohibit the import of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus. It is also prohibited to import these products from third countries if they come from Russia or Belarus. The import ban will apply to agricultural and livestock products that remain in Latvia and not to those transported to other EU member states. At the same time, the adopted draft law is an additional element of the EU's joint sanctions policy, which is still being implemented in response to Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine.

In turn, the ministers of agriculture of the European Union have already called on the executive power of the EU to "reorient" the Common Agricultural Policy after the package of simplifications of the European Commission was found to be insufficient. EU countries sent more than 500 proposals to the EC for greater flexibility at the state level, including rules for revising national strategic plans. Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski proposed to turn some regulations — agricultural and environmental conditions — into voluntary measures. In general, the latest reform of the CAP gives member states "a wide margin of flexibility" to take measures to reduce red tape in areas such as GAEC and eco-schemes. At the same time, the agricultural ministers called on the EU to increase the financing of the subsidy scheme of the Common Agricultural Policy by €60 billion per year. Farmers have also called for a review of trade agreements, which they say allow cheap imports to drive down prices for EU producers.