Updated rules for duty-free and quota-free trade in agricultural products with the European Union have begun work

Updated rules for duty-free and quota-free trade in agricultural products with the European Union have started working in Ukraine today. They will be valid for a year. Currently, quotas have been set for some agricultural products based on the average harvest rate for the second half of 2021 and 2022-2023. This applies to six types of products: sugar, eggs, poultry, corn, cereals and honey.

As the Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Taras Vysotskyi emphasized during his speech at the Grain Ukraine conference, the EU is Ukraine's largest trade partner. After all, in 2023, about 60% of domestic agricultural products were exported to the countries of the European Union. He reminded that soon the laws will come into force, which will ensure transparent and unhindered export mechanisms.

The new legislative changes provide for the establishment of minimum prices for the export of grain and oil crops, nuts and honey. A traceability system for manufactured products will also be launched. And the Ministry of Agrarian Policy is already developing an algorithm for implementing changes that will be published for public discussion.

By the way, in fact, a new stage of integration of the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex into the internal market of the European Union has already started. The agricultural sector of Ukraine is one of the key pillars on which the country's economy rests, and in 2023 it generated 62% of foreign exchange revenue. As the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna reminded on this occasion, a significant part of Ukrainian agricultural products was exported to European countries with which the free trade zone operated, in particular thanks to trade preferences from the European Union at the beginning of the war. The Vice Prime Minister emphasized that this became possible thanks to the experience of implementing the Association Agreement and adapting to European production standards since 2014.

Therefore, according to her, the introduction and implementation of the approaches provided for in the strategy for the development of the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex will lead to the achievement of European standards and increase the productivity of the agricultural sector.