Arya News - The European Union is preparing to substantially increase tariffs on imports of several agricultural goods from Ukraine within weeks as the duty-free agreement between the bloc and Kiev expires on June 6, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing diplomatic sources.
On May 7, European Commission spokesman Olof Gill said that the commission would not extend the duty-free import of goods from Ukraine to the EU after June 5 and was exploring other support opportunities. "Transitional measures" proposed for the period of talks on the new trade agreement could severely affect goods critical to Ukraine"s budget, namely maize, sugar, honey and poultry, the newspaper reported. According to the diplomats, the EU Commission considers dividing the annual tariff-free quota into 12 monthly quotas, which would lead to reduced imports. The decision to cease benefits for Ukrainian imports was reportedly initiated by Poland amid European farmers" protests. In 2022, the EU introduced duty-free imports of goods from Ukraine, which led to a decrease in the prices of domestic products. In late March 2023, at the request of five EU countries bordering Ukraine, namely Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, the European Commission adopted temporary restrictive measures on imports of certain agricultural products from Ukraine. However, in September 2023, the commission decided not to extend the restrictions, but asked Kiev to introduce export control measures. Following the decision, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland announced that they were extending the ban unilaterally.