2023-04-16 19:46:26
The European Commission says unilateral actions by EU countries are unacceptable
Ukraine criticized the Polish government’s decision on Saturday to ban imports of Ukrainian agricultural goodsincluding products intended for other countries, saying it violates a prior agreement between the two countries.
Late on Saturday, Hungary joined the Poland in banning agricultural imports from Ukraine, with both governments saying the restrictions would remain in place until the end of June.
Warsaw’s measure was announced by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki after an emergency cabinet meeting on the influx of Ukrainian goods into Poland.
“We will never leave farmers without help. That’s why we have concrete measures, including a ban on grain from Ukraine entering Poland,” Morawiecki said in a tweet quoted by Politico.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture said it regretted Poland’s decision. “The Ministry of Agrarian Policy, for its part, has always been sympathetic to the situation in the Polish agricultural sector and responded promptly to various challenges,” the ministry said in a statement. “At the moment, unilateral drastic actions will not accelerate a positive resolution of the situation.
Last week, Poland announced that it had agreed with Ukraine to temporarily suspend all grain imports destined for the Polish market. At a joint press conference of the agriculture ministers of Poland and Ukraine, Polish Minister Robert Tellus said that transit products destined for other countries would not be restricted. The two governments have since been negotiating the details of the agreement, and Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky was due to travel to Warsaw to sign the final deal on Monday.
The ban comes as the Polish government struggles to appease its own farmers, who accuse the administration of ignoring an unprecedented influx of Ukrainian agricultural products, many of which flooded local markets instead of being transported elsewhere through so-called EU solidarity routes. The Polish government has been aware of the problem since at least last summer.
The list of goods prohibited from entering Poland under the announced measures includes cereals, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat and other products. Hungary announced a similar list.
“In the absence of significant EU measures, Budapest will temporarily ban the import of grain and oilseeds originating in or coming from Ukraine, as well as several other agricultural products into Hungary,” Hungarian Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy said in a statement late Saturday.
The restriction “lasts until June 30, 2023, which may be enough time to take meaningful and lasting EU measures to review the full duty-free nature of Ukrainian goods and the functioning of the solidarity corridors,” according to the Hungarian statement.
The European Commission said on Sunday it was seeking further information on the restrictions on imports from Poland and Hungary “in order to be able to assess the measures”, according to a statement. “Trade policy is the exclusive competence of the EU and therefore unilateral actions are not acceptable,” it said.
“In such challenging times, it is extremely important to coordinate and align all decisions within the EU,” added the Commission.
For his part, the Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture Yavor Gechev hastened to announce on Easter that Bulgaria can also stop the import of agricultural goods from Ukraine, after this has been agreed with President Radev and the legal options for this move have been assessed.
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