Restrictions on the import of food products from Ukraine pushed by Poland and France will hit Kiev’s economy and “increase the chances of the war dragging on,” said Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture Mykola Solski, speaking to the Financial Times.
Warsaw and Paris are leading efforts to tighten rules proposed in last week’s interim agreement to restrict imports of certain food products from Ukraine in exchange for extending the duty-free trade agreement between the European Union and Kiev for another year.
Decision any day now
The final decision on this matter is expected to be made this week. Poland and France want to add grain to the list of restricted goods and further reduce import quotas for Ukrainian poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, groats and honey, reports the British daily.
The proposal must be supported by a majority of EU Member States. The attitude of Italy will be key – if it agrees with the position of Warsaw and Paris, the other countries will have to agree to further restrictions – writes “FT”.
Imaginary problem?
The solution to the problems of EU agriculture is not more subsidies and increased protectionism, European farmers must become more efficient to compete on world markets, Solski said. He emphasized that “80 percent of the problems usually associated with exports from Ukraine are not real; they are imagined.”
The Ukrainian minister added that world grain prices fell due to record harvests in the USA and Latin American countries.
The position of Warsaw and Paris is a reaction to the protests of farmers who are blocking the Polish-Ukrainian border, as well as the growing anti-Ukrainian sentiment in France and the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to tighten restrictions – notes “FT”.
They support their colleagues in the EU
On Tuesday, Solski is participating in a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels, where decisions are to be made regarding, among others, relaxation of environmental protection rules, as demanded by farmers protesting throughout the community.
– To be honest, I think that Ukrainian farmers (…) support their European colleagues and their demands to relax the European Green Deal – Solski told the British daily. (PAP)
