Ukraine is exhausting its tariff-free quotas for honey, corn and chicken supplies to the European Union, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said at a conference after the Council of Agricultural Ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.
“I am pleased that today, during the discussion on Ukraine, member states generally expressed positive views on the new autonomous trade measures and on the safeguard measures introduced. It was the initiative of the European Commissioner for Agriculture to introduce these import limits, and they are working. They were activated for three products – sugar, eggs and oats. We are observing the situation with other sensitive products. Honey, whose exports have already reached 89% of the limits, corn – 67%, and chicken – 59%,” he said.
Wojciechowski emphasized that European politicians’ accusations against the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy that it is aimed at reducing domestic production and further increasing dependence on imported products are unfounded. The EU has been and will remain the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world, he assured.
According to the European Commissioner, the EU’s agricultural trade surplus in 2023 reached a record EUR 70 billion. This year, this record may be broken, as in the first quarter alone, the EU’s trade surplus with third countries already amounted to EUR 18 billion.
The European Commission is studying the situation on the poultry, egg and frozen fruit markets and is ready to return to tariff quotas if Ukraine maintains the current scale of their supplies to Europe, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said.
During the session of parliamentary committee on agriculture, which took place on Monday, he said that at the moment there is no reason to prohibit import of any other goods, except wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower, from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. These goods are also allowed to transit the territory of these five countries, reports pap.pl.
According to Wojciechowski, market inspections, according to the current legal regime, will end in November, and according to the updated rules, if the procedure begins in June, they will end in September.
“The situation in the poultry market is not only local, but European-wide, and it is very likely that if imports do continue on this scale in the current months, there will be a return to the tariff quotas that were in place before liberalization,” he said.
As the commissioner said, the EC is monitoring the situation in the egg market. There is an increase in imports, and this is also covered by the excessive import procedure. “If this procedure shows excessive imports, there will be quotas or an import ban,” he added.
According to Wojciechowski, imports of frozen fruit from Ukraine to the EU reached 44,000 tons in 2022, an increase of 18.9 percent from 37,000 tons in 2021.
“This situation will be controlled. If during the season it becomes clear that there is a threat to Polish, European producers, the European Commission is ready to impose restrictions even in an emergency, express mode. It depends on the situation during the season, how the situation will develop in the coming months,” he stressed.
According to the Commissioner, since April 2022 until the end of March 2023, Ukraine exported 48 million tons of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, 24 million tons of which were sent to Africa and Asia, about 24 million tons – to the EU countries, 10.3 million tons of which – to the five frontline countries.
Voytsekhovskyy specified that 4.1 million tons of Ukrainian grain arrived in Poland, of which 3.3 million tons remained in the country, and 700 tons were in transit.
The largest transit country, through which the Ukrainian grain passed, was Romania, through which 9 million tons passed, of which 2.5 million tons remained in the country.
As Voytsekhovskyy stated, there was no uncontrolled import of grain from Ukraine to the EU. Because of the growing problem in the frontline countries, a temporary import ban was imposed on Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. “Existing restrictions are ‘likely’ to be extended,” wrote the Polish publication.
The European Commissioner recalled that free trade with Ukraine is very beneficial to the Polish economy. In 2022, almost 10 billion euros of goods were exported from Poland to Ukraine, and less than 6 billion zlotys (EUR 1.254 billion) were imported. At the same time, he noted that this is 1/3 of all EU exports, the value of which was EUR30 billion. In second place is Germany with exports of EUR4 billion.
“If someone asked me why I am in favor of liberalization of trade with Ukraine, it is only because not only political but also economic reasons demanded it,” the Polish edition quoted the European commissioner as saying.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine is working to extend the abolition of duties and quotas for the import of agricultural products to the EU countries for the entire period of its candidacy for the EU, as well as to harmonize Ukrainian legislation with the European one.
The integration prospects in the context of Ukraine obtaining the status of a candidate for EU membership were announced by First Deputy Minister Taras Vysotsky at a meeting with the European Business Association (EBA) on June 22, according to the EBA website on Friday.
According to the organization, in addition to the abolition of quotas and duties from the EU in early July, it is planned to cancel licenses for the export of Ukrainian wheat to the EU countries.
Also, in order to open alternative logistics routes, the ministry is negotiating with countries on the use of the Baltic and Polish corridors for the export of agricultural products.
“To support the dairy industry, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy is negotiating with the European Commission to provide grants of up to EUR 50 million to small farmers, and the possibility of submitting them to other international support programs is being considered,” EBA quotes Vysotsky.
The association noted that in the near future it is planned to separate queues for customs clearance of goods with perishable products at two checkpoints on the border with Poland – in Krakovets and Yahodyn.
As reported, on June 4, Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council No. 2022/870 on temporary trade liberalization measures, exempting Ukrainian exports from all duties and quotas for a year, came into force.
The European Union, as part of the next package of sanctions, has limited the import of fertilizers from Russia.
The restrictions do not apply to deliveries before July 10 under contracts concluded before April 9 this year, according to the Official Journal of the EU.
From July 10, the European Union introduces quotas on the import of a number of Russian fertilizers for a period of one year. The quota for the import of potassium chloride (code 3104 20) will be 837.57 thousand tons, complex and other fertilizers containing potassium (codes 3105 20, 3105 60 and 3105 90) – 1 million 577.807 thousand tons.
The size of quotas can be adjusted by the European Commission.
There are no restrictions on the import of other types of fertilizers.
Earlier on Friday, the European Commission announced that as part of a new package of sanctions against Russia, it would take “measures to counteract the supply of potassium chloride from Belarus” bypassing the sanctions.
EU, FERTILIZERS, IMPORT, QUOTAS, RUSSIA
Ukrainian importers in January-August fully used quotas for duty-free import of pork from the European Union, further import of chilled pork will be subject to a 12% duty, and frozen pork – 10%, this was reported on the website of the Pig Breeders of Ukraine association. “As of September 1, some 20,000 tonnes of chilled and frozen pork from the EU countries were brought to Ukraine. This corresponds to the quota for duty-free supply of pork from the European Union countries established under the economic part of the Association Agreement. Since these limits have been used this year, each next kilogram of European chilled pork will cost importers 12% more due to the duty, and frozen pork meat will rise in price by 10%,” the organization said.
According to the association, there has been some recovery in import activity this year, which confirms the use of the pork import quota in August, while in previous years the import quota was used in November-December.
It clarified that Ukrainian importers have similar agreements on duty-free supplies of up to 14,400 tonnes of pork from Canada (the quota was used by 9%) and up to 1,700 tonnes from the UK (no deliveries from this country were made in 2021).
“If the import of raw meat from these countries becomes economically attractive for the importer, the supply of frozen pork is unlikely to have a significant impact on the domestic pork market. In addition, the expected changes in exchange rates in the fall will also increase the entry barrier for imported raw materials,” the association concluded.
From February 5, 2021, the Economy Ministry will start accepting applications as part of the distribution of the tariff quota for the import of raw cane sugar into Ukraine among importers.
As reported on the website of the Economy Ministry on Monday, the quota for the import of raw sugar in 2021 was set at 260,000 tonnes.
According to the State Statistics Service, in 2020, Ukraine imported 1,880 tonnes of sugar for $1.8 million, which is 39.2% and 9.8% more compared to 2019. Export of sugar from Ukraine in the past year amounted to 150,600 tonnes in quantity terms and $59.34 million in monetary terms, having decreased compared to 2019 by 30.3% and 36.4%, respectively.
According to the National Association of Sugar Producers Ukrtsukor, as of January 12, sugar production in Ukraine in the 2020/2021 marketing year amounted to 1.021 million tonnes, while the forecast for the entire marketing year was of 1.2 million tonnes, which is 15% less than in 2019/2020 marketing year. In this marketing year, 30 sugar factories operated in the country, which processed 7.7 million tonnes of sugar beet.
