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Corn on a farm in Ukraine: European farmers fear cheap imports

Photo: Ukrinform / dpa

According to the EU Commission's proposal, Ukrainian products should be able to be exported to the EU duty-free until June 2025. The Commission agreed on a corresponding extension of the trade facilitation measures on Wednesday. The measures were introduced in 2022 to strengthen the Ukrainian economy during the war. The EU extended the measures until June 2024 last year.

With the renewed extension, the Commission is also proposing protective measures for certain “sensitive” agricultural areas. An “emergency brake” is planned for sugar, eggs and poultry if more are imported than the average for 2022 and 2023. In this case, tariffs could be reintroduced. The Commission's proposal still needs to be adopted by the EU Parliament and the Member States.

There were early controversial debates about trade facilitation for Ukraine. Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia complained about significantly increased imports, which would have caused problems for their own farmers. The affected countries saw the market distorted by Ukrainian products.

The EU then decided on trade restrictions on wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds. These were no longer allowed to be traded in the five eastern countries. The grain embargo expired last September. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia then introduced import bans on their own initiative.

Farmers see Ukrainian goods as a threat to their own business

Agricultural imports from Ukraine also play a role in farmers' protests in France and Belgium. Farmers in the EU see their business at risk because products from Ukraine enter the EU much cheaper. The country is an important producer of grains and oilseeds.

Shortly before a summit meeting of European heads of state and government in Brussels, French and Belgian farmers once again demonstrated against rising costs, environmental regulations and cheap imports with extensive road blockades. A long line of tractors headed for the Rungis wholesale market near Paris on Wednesday, even though Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin urgently warned farmers against attempts to block the area or airports or even the capital itself.

A police representative said 18 people had already been arrested. Television showed footage of police stopping tractors on the Loire to prevent them from entering Paris. In Belgium, farmers blocked, among other things, access roads to the container port of Zeebrugge.

In total, the French authorities recorded around 100 blockades, Darmanin said. Similar to what happened recently in Germany, French farmers have already blocked highway entrances or other roads with tractors in numerous places in the past few days. Similar actions have already taken place in other European countries, such as Poland and Romania. Spain's farmers have declared that they will join the movement. 1,000 Italian farmers have announced that they will take part in protests planned for Thursday in Brussels. The EU summit will take place in the Belgian capital on Thursday.

mmq/dpa/Reuters