In response to pressure from multiple EU member states, the European Commission (EC) will temporarily limit imports of four types of Ukrainian crops.
Free trade of wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia will be put on hold until the 5th of June, as reported by the EC in the evening on Tuesday, the 2nd of May.
It will still be allowed to carry these agricultural products to carry through these countries to other EU member states.
The first details about this agreement became known on Friday, the 31st of April. The agreement itself was reached after countries that were affected the most by imports from Ukraine complained about competition.
Governments of certain countries, including Poland and Hungary, responded to complaints by independently limiting imports of certain goods.
Now these national measures will be cancelled, the EC reports.
Ukraine is one of the main grain producer countries. The Russian invasion at the beginning of 2022 had blocked the country’s main export routes in the Black Sea. Now Kyiv relies on other countries to export its goods via railway, cargo trucks or barges.
Ukraine welcomed the decision reached at the end of the week.
According to Ukraine’s Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko, the blockade of imports of Ukrainian goods has impacted Ukraine and has also caused suffering in the Middle East and Africa.
The grain deal is still criticised, however. “The problem is not resolved, was only moved deeper in EU territory,” said German opposition parliamentarian Norbert Lins, who is in charge of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture.
He called EC’s protection measures a fake solution and said it is necessary to think how bring the already developed trade routes connecting Ukraine and the EU to a new level
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