Brussels has refused to return customs duties in trade with Ukraine. The Minister of Agriculture of Poland tells Business Insider about this and the search for optimal solutions for Polish farmers.
"We asked the European Commission to reinstate tariffs on some sensitive products, but the EC rejected it," Minister Czeslaw Siekerski said.
The opening of the European market for agricultural products from Ukraine may in the future completely destabilize not only the domestic market, but also the European market, warns the head of the Polish Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
The Minister confirms that the European Commission is preparing a draft resolution to extend duty-free trade with Ukraine until June 2025.
Poland, for its part, will seek maximum protection for its agriculture.
He also wants to create Polish-Ukrainian technical groups to normalize trade relations.
The embargo on Ukrainian products will have to be canceled, the minister said. The embargo on agricultural products from Ukraine has calmed the situation on the Polish market to some extent, but it was not well received politically.
The European Commission and Ukraine opposed the embargo, Czeslaw Ciekerski acknowledged. He confirmed that "the EC is preparing a draft resolution to extend duty-free trade with Ukraine until June 2025."
"The problem of the negative effects of imports from Ukraine is increasingly being noticed by Western European countries and concerns a wider range of products than just grain. In particular, France, Austria, and Germany are talking about threats to the markets for grain, poultry, soft fruits, and sugar. These countries say, among other things, that it is necessary to restore tariff quotas, which are currently suspended under EU rules. Poland supports these demands, we have asked the European Commission to restore tariff quotas for some sensitive products, but the European Commission rejected it," the minister said.
According to Czeslaw Ciekerski, "opening the European market to Ukrainian agricultural products could completely destabilize not only the domestic market but also the European market in the future."
As he emphasized, "3/4 of Ukrainian grain exports were to Ukraine's neighboring countries, which caused serious market disruptions. In addition, there were internal conditions, i.e. falling purchase prices for agricultural products with a simultaneous increase in purchase prices for the functioning of agriculture in general.
The Minister outlined a plan of further actions to prevent problems for Business Insider. According to him, "the decisions should be joint and satisfactory not only for the European Commission or Ukraine, but first of all for Poland."
"Therefore, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy (of Poland) is putting forward its demands to change the provisions in the resolution, among others: to speed up the procedures for safeguard provisions, including the possibility of applying regional safeguard measures – if the market problem does not affect the entire EU, but a separate member state or region," Sekerski told Business Insider.
The Minister assures that the first results of the Polish-Ukrainian negotiations are already visible.
"In the current difficult situation, we want to develop an acceptable way for all participants to protect against the negative consequences of agricultural imports from Ukraine. We are analyzing and holding internal consultations on, among other things, the mechanism of licensing agricultural exports to Poland proposed by the Ukrainian side," the Minister said.
In his opinion, such a decision, "with appropriate support from the European Commission," could be acceptable.
Background. On January 7, it was reported that Polish farmers signed an agreement with the government and stopped blocking the border with Ukraine. The farmers were promised to meet all their demands.