European Parliament’s Agricultural Committee supports European farmers’ demands for Ukrainian products
28 February 2024 15:23
The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee has approved amendments to the European Commission’s decision on Ukrainian goods proposed by the Alliance of European Farmers. This was reported by Kommersant Ukrainian 
with reference to Euractiv.
Earlier, the European Commission approved the extension of the preferential trade regime with Ukraine, introducing several additional restrictions. In particular, in order to “stabilise imports at the level of average volumes in 2022-2023”, it came up with an “emergency braking” mechanism for three products: poultry, eggs and sugar. In practice, this means setting a quota at the level of the average export volume in 2022-2023, exceeding which will automatically result in an import tariff being applied to the products.
The European Parliament’s Agricultural Committee proposes to extend this rule to cereals, oil and honey. The committee also proposes to use the pre-war years of 2021-2022, when the preferential regime was already in place, as the import ceiling, rather than the military years 2022-2023, when Ukrainian products were subject to customs duties, and therefore their volume on the European market was much lower.
In addition, the committee believes that the EU should use part of the €50 billion allocated to Ukraine to buy back surplus Ukrainian goods on the European market.
These proposals should now be considered by the relevant trade committee, which will decide whether to include these “amendments” in the final draft decision to be voted on by the entire European Parliament.
Therefore, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB) appealed to the members of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee.
“Your vote can be decisive for the economic fate of Ukraine in this crucial year. Any proposals to restrict imports of Ukrainian agricultural products to the European market could lead to a catastrophe for the Ukrainian economy,” the statement reads,
– the statement reads.
According to the UCAB, the precautionary measures proposed by the Commission will cost the Ukrainian economy approximately $250 million in lost export revenues. However, if MEPs decide to adopt the amendments of the Agriculture Committee, the deficit in Ukraine’s export earnings will increase to $5 billion.
The European Parliament’s Trade Committee will consider the draft decision and amendments to it on 7 March.
Preferential trade regime and its opponents
Many EU members do not like the quota-free import of Ukrainian products to the EU, which was in effect in 2022-2023. In particular, a number of Eastern European countries are demanding that the EU impose import duties on Ukrainian goods, citing unfair competition. The ministers of agriculture of Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia sent a letter to the European Commission asking for action, saying that cheaper agricultural products from Ukraine were eating into their export markets.
The European Commission took these comments into account when preparing a draft decision to extend the preferential trade regime with Ukraine and issued a compromise version, which is actually quite harsh on Ukrainian products. At the very least, it creates severe barriers to further growth of Ukrainian exports. However, even this option does not suit these countries. Six major European farmers’ associations have also strongly protested against Ukrainian products.
