Ukraine is ready to temporarily accept trade restrictions with the EU in order to alleviate the sharp political dispute with Poland, but wants the EU to impose an embargo on the import of Russian grain, Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kaczka told the Financial Times on Wednesday.
“Perhaps during the transition period, this kind of managed approach to trade flows between Ukraine and the EU is something we all need,” Kaczka said. However, he added: “In the case of wheat, it is not Ukraine that causes problems for Polish farmers, but Russia.”
As “FT” reminds, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, the EU abolished tariffs on Ukrainian imports, but Poland and other neighboring countries soon experienced an excess of grain, as a result of which farmers took to the streets and began to block borders to protest against unfair competition. The previous Polish government imposed a unilateral import ban in violation of EU trade rules, but continued protests in recent weeks have forced current Prime Minister Donald Tusk to seek an exemption from the rules in Brussels and continue the restrictions.
Kaczka accused Russia of fueling Polish protests. He stated that Moscow was “definitely” behind the attack by Polish farmers on a train carrying Ukrainian grain, which resulted in the spillage of the cargo. The Russians “are engaged in incidents of vandalism or sabotage that can be viewed as generally hostile to Ukraine,” he said.
Ukraine’s trade representative assured that Kiev supports new measures proposed by Brussels to impose limits on imports of eggs, poultry and sugar from June and to allow individual countries to close their markets to Ukrainian grain, except for onward transit to other countries.
Pointing out that sugar production in Ukraine increased from 7,000 tons up to 500 thousand tone between 2022 and last year, admitted: “How quickly it happened could scare anyone.”
Kiev also recently agreed to redirect corn exports to Italy and Spain through the Black Sea instead of overland through neighboring countries to reduce tensions. “We voluntarily stopped allowing the export of corn to all five neighboring member states. Despite this, we exported another new record – 15 million tons of corn in the calendar year 2023. So we have strong demand in other countries. Ukraine has filled the gaps in EU production,” Kaczka said.
However, the FT notes that an EU-wide ban on Russian grain imports, such as Kaczka is talking about, would be difficult to achieve because several member states oppose such a move due to fears that it would destabilize world markets and deepen economic and social crises in developing countries. myself. Russian grain exports to the EU have increased by over 50%. up to 1.5 million tons in 2022-2023.
