The European Council, which brings together EU heads of state, at a meeting on March 21-22, supported in principle the extension of the liberalization of the trade regime with Ukraine for another year, which provides preferential conditions for Ukrainian exports to the EU, but the final decision is still being agreed upon, said Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishyna.
“The European Council voted in favor of the decision on trade liberalization,” she said at an exporters’ summit organized by Forbes Ukraine on Friday, adding that only a number of technical issues remain.
“The decision on trade liberalization was discussed during the European Council meeting. EU leaders supported the importance of continuing autonomous trade preferences. The approval process is ongoing,” Stefanyshyna said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine.
The Deputy Prime Minister noted that the conclusion of the European Council meeting states that it calls for continuing work without delay to resolve issues related to autonomous trade preferences for Ukraine “in a fair and balanced manner.”
“At the same time, the need to find a long-term solution within the framework of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and the free trade area is enshrined,” Stefanyshyna also said.
Earlier it was reported that the European Council and the European Parliament had previously agreed to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year, until June 5, 2025, by strengthening protective measures for sensitive agricultural products. The new safeguard measures, in particular, oblige the European Commission to automatically reintroduce tariff quotas if imports of eggs, sugar, oats, corn, cereals, and honey exceed the arithmetic average of imports in 2022-2023.
At the same time, large European agricultural associations and farmers’ unions claim that the proposed measures are insufficient to protect the EU market from imports of Ukrainian agricultural products and demand that restrictions be strengthened. They insist, in particular, that when calculating import limits from Ukraine, data for the pre-war year 2021, when such imports were minimal, should be taken into account instead of the two war years proposed by the European Commission – 2022-2023. In addition, farmers’ associations propose to include wheat in the list of sensitive agricultural products whose exports will be limited by a safeguard mechanism.
EUROPEAN COUNCIL, TRADE LIBERALIZATION, Стефанишина
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