EU provides details of free trade restrictions with Ukraine

Permanent representatives of the EU member states on the evening of 8 April confirmed an agreement to extend preferential trade with Ukraine for another year, but with restrictions on agricultural products.

Source: a statement by the Council of the EU, European Pravda reports

Details: The agreement provides that the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU will be extended until 5 June 2025. At the same time, it contains two safeguard mechanisms to protect the EU market.

The first mechanism is an enhanced version of the existing restrictions, which will be applied on the basis of regular monitoring by the European Commission.

The second, new mechanism will oblige the European Commission to reintroduce tariff quotas on imports of poultry meat, eggs, sugar, as well as oats, corn, cereals and honey from Ukraine if they exceed the arithmetic average of the volumes imported in the second half of 2021, 2022 and 2023.

This mechanism is automatically triggered 14 days after the excess exports are detected, rather than 21 days as previously envisaged. In addition, it now takes into account import data for the pre-war year of 2021, not just 2022 and 2023.

It is expected that the new terms of Ukraine's preferential trade with the EU will be approved first by the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade on Tuesday, 9 April, and by the end of the month by the plenary session of the European Parliament.

After that, the relevant regulation will be adopted by the Council of the EU, signed by representatives of the Council and the European Parliament, published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and will enter into force on 6 June.

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