EU ambassadors will discuss a new proposal on Wednesday for imports of Ukrainian agricultural products after some countries said new restrictions were needed to stabilize the bloc’s agricultural market, a European source told Reuters.

Wheat harvest in Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine) in 2020Photo: Ukrinform / Avalon / Profimedia

EU member states are debating ways to grant Ukraine a new one-year extension to lift tariffs on EU market access, while appeasing European farmers who have protested for months against EU environmental rules and cheap imports, Agerpres reports.

Last week, the EU reached a tentative agreement that gives Ukrainian food producers duty-free access to EU markets until June 2025, but with new restrictions on grain imports. However, France and Poland found these restrictions insufficient.

“The presidency tabled a new proposal last night with minor changes… EU ambassadors will discuss the proposal at the end of their meeting today,” a source from the Belgian presidency of the European Council said.

Poland’s Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Siekerski will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Solski on Wednesday afternoon to hold a joint meeting of the governments of the two countries on Thursday. Sekerski told the PAP news agency that talks with Ukraine had been difficult, but another Polish official said a deal could be announced soon.

Poland has previously said it is interested in concluding an agreement with Ukraine that would allow agricultural products to be traded on the basis of export-import licenses, similar to the one Kyiv authorities negotiated with Romania and Bulgaria to end protests. on the border of Ukraine.

Polish farmers claim that a significant part of Ukrainian grain, which was supposed to pass through Poland on the way to other countries, ends up on the Polish market. In response, authorities in Kyiv say the Polish farmers’ protests, which have included blocking checkpoints and dumping Ukrainian grain, are affecting the military effort against Russia as well as the Ukrainian economy. Also, Ukrainian officials claim that only a small part of the grain that Ukraine exports transits through Poland.

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