Help for farmers

EU plans tariffs for Ukrainian agricultural products

The pressure from farmers on the streets seems to be having a further effect.(Bild: APA/AFP/GAIZKA IROZ)

The EU is making further concessions to farmers. Negotiators from the member states agreed on Wednesday night on tariffs for certain agricultural products from Ukraine.

According to the Parliament, the specific products in question are eggs, poultry, sugar, maize, oats, groats and honey. In future, there is to be a certain quota of these goods that can be sold duty-free in the EU. Once this quantity has been reached, customs duties will become due again. For the time being, no customs duties will continue to apply to imports of wheat, although it will be possible to take measures under certain conditions. According to the provisional agreement, these rules will apply until June 2025.

In the course of the ongoing farmers' protests in the EU, farmers from Poland in particular had called for changes to the Ukrainian-European trade policy. There have been repeated border blockades and attacks on grain transports. Polish farmers have been criticizing the import of cheaper agricultural products from Ukraine for months. They want to prevent cheaper Ukrainian grain from reaching the domestic market, for example.

Trade facilitation after Russian invasion
After the Russian attack on Ukraine two years ago, Brussels suspended all import duties and quotas on agricultural products from Ukraine in order to help the country economically. There had already been a trade agreement with Ukraine, but the additional relief went far beyond this. According to EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU has never before taken such trade facilitation measures.

Farmers from four other eastern EU countries faced disproportionate competition due to increased imports of goods from Ukraine. Recently, however, pressure from France has also increased. According to the French agricultural associations AGPB and AGPM, grain producers have been weakened by a drop in prices and exploding costs and have been suffering for months from considerable market distortions caused by the influx of Ukrainian grain into the EU.

Pressure from farmers on the streets appears to be having a further impact.(Bild: APA/AFP/GAIZKA IROZ)

Austrian letter of formal notice to the Commission
As recently reported, farmers from Austria sent a letter of formal notice to the EU Commission regarding grain imports. "Imports from Ukraine must return to the level we had before the war. This requires quotas, tariffs and strict controls on quality standards," appealed MEPs Christian Sagartz from Burgenland and Alexander Bernhuber, whose political home is in Lower Austria (both ÖVP).