The new government in Warsaw has won concessions from the European Union as part of its efforts to curb Ukrainian food exports, with the EU’s trade commissioner telling the Financial Times that Brussels will control food imports if it could lead to lower prices in Poland and elsewhere. neighboring Ukraine.

In April 2023, Poland and Hungary imposed a unilateral embargo on imports of Ukrainian products following mass protests by farmers concerned that an influx of cheap Ukrainian products could lead to a glut of grain in their domestic markets. These measures were contrary to EU trade law.

Now the European Commission is going to offer additional guarantees to the countries that have a border with Ukraine in order to expand benefits for Ukrainian products from June.

The EU will block Ukrainian exports if they flood neighboring markets

European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told the Financial Times that the proposals will be presented later this week and are likely to include “country-specific guarantees” that would allow Brussels to block imports if a country’s market is flooded. Currently, the impact on the entire EU market is only being assessed, which makes it less likely that action will be taken.

“We will look at how we can provide additional guarantees to Poland and other member states, and one of the ways we can do that is to introduce country-specific guarantees,” Dombrovskis said.

“We see that this regional influence of trade and export of Ukrainian agricultural products is very unevenly distributed. This is mainly felt by the neighboring countries, while in the EU market in general it does not create too big disruptions,” added the European Commissioner.

The new guarantees will be good news for Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who is trying to protect domestic economic interests while fulfilling his promise to reconcile Poland with the European Union after years of wrangling between the previous government in Warsaw, controlled by the Law and Justice party (PiS ) and Brussels regarding the rule of law.

Dombrovskis also said the extension would cover the agricultural year ending in June 2025. However, the Commission’s proposal must be approved by the European Parliament and a majority of member states. In addition, the European commissioner said he will open negotiations on mutual trade liberalization, demanding that Ukraine lower some of its own trade barriers to increase exports from the EU, as the authorities in Kyiv begin talks on joining the EU.

Romanian farmers and transporters staged sporadic protests this month, demanding primarily domestic economic measures, but also expressing concern about Ukrainian competition and the lack of proper regulation of Ukrainian imports and services. Romania’s main farmers’ organizations appealed to authorities on Sunday to insist on national safeguard clauses and tighter import restrictions when concessions granted to Ukraine are extended. (Agerpress)