EU to roll back Ukraine trade perks
EU member states have approved the reimposition of import quotas on Ukrainian agricultural goods, European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari has said, as cited by Euroactiv. The current duty-free trade regime is set to expire on June 5.
Brussels abolished tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian agricultural produce following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The bloc adopted special regulations, known as Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs), aimed at enabling grain and other farm products from Ukraine to reach global markets. However, the influx of cheap Ukrainian produce into Eastern European countries sparked widespread protests among local farmers, particularly in Poland.
The latest move, endorsed by a majority of EU nations at a meeting on Thursday morning, introduces a set of 'transitional measures' that will phase out the ATMs and reimpose certain trade controls.
Some restrictions have already been reintroduced over the past year, targeting commodities such as oats, sugar, and eggs. The selective reinstatements came in response to months of protests in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and other countries neighboring Ukraine, where farmers said they could no longer compete with tariff-exempt goods.
Politico previously reported, citing a draft act, that the EU was considering replacing ATMs with revised limits under Ukraine's existing trade framework with the bloc, known as the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), rather than extending the measures on a yearly basis.
Commenting on the latest news, the chair of the Ukrainian Parliament's economic affairs committee, Dmitry Natalukha, told Euractiv that halting the ATMs could cost Kiev more than €3 billion ($3.4 billion), which he said is equal to around 70% of the country's projected total economic growth for the current year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Russia Today
13 hours ago
- Russia Today
Ukraine conflict could drag on
The Ukraine conflict could drag on and grow even more brutal, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned, citing a deep rift between the US and EU on how to end it. Recent military activity suggests escalation rather than a push for peace, he added. Moscow and Kiev have held two rounds of direct peace talks in the past three weeks, leading to several agreements, such as large-scale prisoner exchanges. However, the talks were followed by intensified Ukrainian drone attacks, which Russia said were aimed at sabotaging peace efforts. Russia responded with retaliatory strikes on military infrastructure targets in Ukraine. 'The military actions that have taken place in recent days signal that the war will be longer and more brutal,' Orban said in a social media post on Monday. He claimed that divisions within NATO are making the situation worse, as US President Donald Trump pushes for peace while EU 'war hawks' want the conflict to continue. 'We have to face the fact that the transatlantic unity has broken up,' Orban said, arguing that 'there has never been such a gap' between pro-peace and pro-war forces within the military bloc. Orban said Hungary rejects the EU's militaristic approach and will 'remain on the side of peace,' even if this leads to 'a louder debate with the Brussels bureaucrats, intent on the continuation of the war.' Hungary has repeatedly clashed with Brussels over the EU's Ukraine policy. Orban has condemned the bloc's arms and financial support for Kiev, and has promoted independent peace efforts. He has also voiced strong support for Trump's efforts to mediate between Kiev and Moscow. In a separate post on Monday, Orban suggested that only an agreement between the US and Russia could bring peace. 'It's a misconception to think that peace could come as a result of a Russian-Ukrainian negotiation. It will never happen,' Orban stated. 'The only way to make peace is a Russian-American agreement. And not only on the conflict… but on trade, energy, investments.' Russia and Ukraine exchanged memorandums proposing ways to resolve the conflict at the second round of talks on Monday, although according to the texts published online, their key demands remain at odds. Both sides are now reviewing each other's proposals.
Russia Today
13 hours ago
- Russia Today
Polish president-elect on Russia's wanted list
Polish president-elect Karol Nawrocki is listed as wanted by Russia on criminal charges related to his role in the destruction of Soviet-era monuments in the country, according to the Russian Interior Ministry's public database. Nawrocki, a conservative candidate who narrowly clinched a victory in the run-off vote on Sunday, is being sought by Russia 'under a criminal article,' the database says, without providing more details. The Polish president-elect has been in the sights of the Russian authorities since at least February 2024, according to TASS. The agency reported at the time that Russian law enforcement officials had initiated criminal proceedings against several senior Polish officials, including Nawrocki, then serving as director of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance. The charges were related to the removal and destruction of Soviet war memorials. The Soviet Union lost over 600,000 soldiers during its campaign to liberate Poland from Nazi Germany between 1944 and 1945. After the war, hundreds of monuments were erected across Poland commemorating their role. Since the collapse of the Warsaw bloc and the end of the Cold War, Poland has accused the Soviet Union of 'occupying' the country and has made efforts to eliminate communist-era symbols. By late 2023, the Polish authorities had removed 468 of the 561 Soviet memorials in the country, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Moscow has accused Warsaw of trampling on the historical truth and paving the way for justifying Nazi collaborators. Nawrocki, who ran as an independent backed by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, defeated liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski with 50.89% of the vote in the presidential vote. He is scheduled to be sworn in on August 6. The president-elect, who also served as the director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk between 2017 and 2021, has generally supported continued aid to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, but has spoken out against Kiev joining NATO, or sending Polish troops to the country. He has also opposed closer EU-Ukraine trade ties, arguing that they would encourage unfair competition and undermine Polish agricultural and transport enterprises.
Russia Today
a day ago
- Russia Today
EU mulls blocking China's access to medical device procurement
The European Union is examining the possibility of imposing restrictions on public procurement contracts across the bloc for Chinese medical device producers, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the plans. Brussels and Beijing have recently been locked in an escalating tit-for-tat stand-off over trade protectionism. Earlier this year, the European Commission (EC) said that a probe launched last year into alleged unfair Chinese trade practices had revealed that Beijing has been limiting access for EU medical devices and suppliers to the Chinese procurement market. Last month, China's Ministry of Commerce announced that its anti-dumping investigation into brandy imports from the EU – initiated in response to a probe by the bloc – had been extended due to the complexity of the case. Members of the 27-nation bloc are expected to vote on the proposed measure on Monday, June 2, the unnamed source told Bloomberg. If approved, the step would mark Brussels' first action under the International Procurement Instrument (IPI), a regulation adopted in 2022 to promote reciprocity in access to public procurement markets, the news agency noted. The IPI enables the EC to introduce a range of restrictions on companies bidding for public contracts – from score adjustments in tenders to a full ban on participation. The news comes ahead of a meeting between the two sides' top trade officials. Maros Sefcovic and Wang Wentao are reportedly expected to meet on Tuesday on the sidelines of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ministerial conference in Paris. If adopted, the restrictions could further fuel ongoing trade tensions between the EU and China, opening a new front in disputes between both parties, each of which is also engaged in mounting trade frictions with the US.
