After the European Commission announced a solution on Friday on the cancellation of the preventive measures on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, a second announcement followed shortly after with three countries saying they would extend them unilaterally.
As previously reported, the measures had been adopted in May 2023 on imports of wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed from Ukraine because of logistical bottlenecks that disrupted the internal market for these products in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. They were due to expire by Friday midnight but the Member States concerned had asked for an extension.
However, as a result of what was described as constructive discussions in the special Coordination Platform, which had convened several times, it was agreed by the Commission and the EU Member States that the existing measures would expire on Friday as foreseen.
Trade policy is an EU competency. In return for the non-extension of the preventive measures, the Commission had apparently proposed a compromise solution.
Ukraine agreed to introduce any legal measures (including, for example, an export licensing system) within 30 days to avoid potential grain surges. Until then, Ukraine is to put in place effective measures to control the export of the four groups of goods in order to prevent any market distortions in the neighbouring member states.
To start with, Ukraine will submit an Action Plan to the platform no later than today (18 September). The European Commission and Ukraine will monitor the situation via the Coordination Platform to be able to react to any unforeseen situations. The Commission will refrain from imposing any new restrictions as long as the effective measures by Ukraine are in place and fully working.
A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the announcement by the three member states (Poland, Hungary and Slovakia) on unilateral extension of the restrictive measures. It was not clear whether the Commission knew in advance of their announcement.
The Commission writes that it has analysed the data related to the impact of the exports of the four categories of agricultural products on the EU market and concluded that the market distortions in the five member states bordering Ukraine have disappeared.
The analysis is not available to media. “We share information in the Coordination Platform”, the spokesperson said. The bottlenecks have been solved, among others, by increased capacity on the Solidarity Lanes and increased storage capacity. Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, himself from Poland, has reportedly said the market distortions were caused by speculation by traders.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
