Ambassadors of European Union member states supported the extension of trade liberalization with Ukraine, the Swedish EU presidency said on its Twitter page.
“The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) has just supported the renewal of the Provisional Trade Liberalization Regulation supplementing trade concessions under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. This will support Ukraine’s economy after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the statement said.
The decision must then be approved by the European Parliament, followed by a formal decision by the European Council. The procedure should be completed at the end of May.
A day earlier, on Thursday, the “green light” to extend the cancellation of import duties on Ukrainian exports to the European Union for a period of one year to support the country’s economy was given by the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade. The vote in the plenary session is scheduled for May 8-11.
As it was reported, the problematic issue was the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products by five EU countries – Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. It was caused by the accumulation in these countries of Ukrainian agricultural products intended for further import. In this connection, on April 19, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced proposals to introduce a temporary – until June 5 – import ban on corn, wheat, rapeseed, sunflower and sunflower oil for these five countries. Besides, financial compensation in the amount of EUR100 million is envisaged for these countries.
