The European Commission has proposed to renew the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the European Union for another year, while reinforcing protection for sensitive EU agricultural products.
EU had introduced these Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs) in June 2022 to help alleviate the difficult situation faced by Ukrainian producers and exporters as a consequence of Russia’s war against their country.
While the main objective of the ATMs is to support Ukraine, the measures are also mindful of EU farmers’ and other stakeholders’ sensitivities. To this end, and considering a significant increase in imports of some agricultural products from Ukraine to the EU in the past two years, the renewed ATMs contain a reinforced safeguard mechanism. This makes sure that quick remedial action can be taken in case of significant disruptions to the EU market, or to the markets of one or more Member States.
For the most sensitive products – poultry, eggs and sugar – an emergency brake is foreseen that would stabilize imports at the average import volumes in 2022 and 2023. The European Commission made it clear that if imports of these products were exceeding those volumes, tariffs would be reimposed to ensure that import volumes do not significantly exceed those of previous years.
On Wednesday, the Commission also proposed to extend for one more year the suspension of all remaining duties on Moldovan imports in force since July 2022.
The current regime of ATMs will expire on June 5 for Ukraine and July 24 for Moldova.
The Commission’s proposal to exempt Ukraine from import duties is subject to approval by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
According to the Commission, the ATMs for Ukraine have had a clear positive effect on Ukraine’s trade to the EU. Trade flows from Ukraine to the EU have remained remarkably stable in 2022 and 2023, despite the major disruptions caused by the war and against the general trend of a decrease in Ukraine’s trade overall.
Total EU imports from Ukraine amounted to EUR24.3 billion in the 12 months to October 2023 compared to pre-war levels in 2021 of EUR24 billion.
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