EU agrees on extension of stop on Ukrainian import duties. But with safeguards for European farmers

Brussels – Another year of a halt to tariffs on food imports from Ukraine, despite difficulties on several occasions that first began at the Union’s eastern borders in 2023 and then reverberated in almost all member countries over the past few months. After a last brief inter-institutional negotiation between the EU Parliament and Council, in the early hours of today (March 20), the two co-legislators arrived at a provisional understanding on the extension of trade liberalization measures for Ukraine until June 5, 2025, but with two ’emergency brakes’ in case of difficulties for European farmers.

The temporary suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU was first introduced in April 2022 and was renewed in May last year – though with some temporary restrictive measures made necessary by difficulties and tensions in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary – to support Ukraine in the context of the Russian invasion: “This renewal reaffirms the EU’s unwavering political and economic support for Ukraine after two years of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression,” the Council said in a statement after the understanding. “Russia’s targeting of Ukraine and its food production also impacts EU farmers,” the rapporteur for the EU Parliament, Sandra Kalniete (EPP), stressed.

While the Commission is reasoning about the possibility of introducing substantial duties on Russian grain imports, in late January, it proposed a second extension to imports from Ukraine with a series of new measures in the event of “significant disruption of the EU market”– even from a single member country – to anticipate (unsuccessfully) the strong protests of European farmers. The trilogue between EU Parliament and Council negotiators became necessary after MEPs introduced amendments to the Commission’s proposal at the March Plenary session that the Council did not support. What has emerged is a renewed Regulation that will apply from June 6 – subject to the approval of both EU institutions – that envisages the extension of the suspension of duties on Ukrainian exports to the Union and, at the same time, allows the Commission to take action within 14 days (no longer 21) to trigger automatic safeguards in the event of market disruptions.

First, the deal strengthens the already existing ’emergency brake’ on agricultural products that are “particularly sensitive” – namely poultry, eggs, and sugar – that will now take into account “any adverse impact on the market of one or several member states” rather than just on the EU market as a whole. Second, the deal extends the list to four additional products – oats, corn, semolina, and honey – and the Commission’s commitment to strengthen monitoring of imports of wheat and other cereals is explicit. For the activation of ’emergency brakes,’ the reference period will be 2022 and 2023. It means that if imports of poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, semolina, and honey exceed the average volumes of the past two years, the European Commission will be obliged to reintroduce tariffs.