“FT”: The EU intends to impose much higher duties on imports from Ukraine

The European Union plans to introduce higher duties on imports from Ukraine in the coming weeks – the Financial Times says on Wednesday. The decision to terminate the current commercial arrangements was made when Poland headed the activities protecting farmers from the EU – diplomats cited by “FT” say.

The arrangements that allow for the import of most Ukrainian goods to the EU without a duty lose their power on June 6. The EU plans to replace them with transitional funds, while conducting talks on a new trade agreement. Work on it can last even until October.

According to diplomats, on which the British daily, “a transition proposal, recently presented to EU Member States, would drastically reduce the amounts free from customs for agricultural products.” In the opinion of “FT” interlocutors, the duty -free imports is “a lifebuoy for Ukrainian farmers and a budget (state)”.

The newspaper reminds that introduced in 2022 (when the war began on a full -scale Russia with Ukraine – PAP) the duty -free system concerned primarily cheap Ukrainian poultry, wheat and sugar. Most of these products were transported through the territory of EU countries to Africa and Asia. This caused protests among Polish and French farmers who blamed Ukrainian exports for lowering national prices.

Ukrainian authorities estimate that a return to trade conditions from before the war would reduce the country's income by around EUR 3.5 billion a year.

According to two EU diplomats, transitional measures would consist of dividing the annual duty -free contingent into 12 months of contingents, which aims to reduce imports during the interviews.

As calculated, this will have the greatest impact on the import of corn (a forecast decrease from 4.7 million tons to 650,000 tons), sugar (a forecast decrease from 109 thousand tons to 40.7 thousand tons) and poultry (a forecast decrease from 57.1 thousand tons to 40,000 tons). (PAP)

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