Polish European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that on the issue of extending free trade with Ukraine until 2025, he will not support the new regulation if it does not include restrictions on the import of Ukrainian sugar and poultry meat into the EU.
He stated this in an interview with RMF FM.
The publication indicates that the European Commission is completing work on a project to extend the validity of the resolution on trade liberalization with Ukraine. On January 9, the EC completed interdepartmental approvals of the new regulations. The current regulation, introduced after the start of the war in Ukraine, has already been extended once and expires on June 5, so work has been carried out to extend it until 2025.
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EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski demands that the new regulation preserve safeguard clauses and introduce quantitative restrictions on imports of poultry meat and sugar from Ukraine. He even sent a letter to the head of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, on this issue.
As RMF FM unofficially learned, Wojciechowski even threatened to withdraw his support for the resolution if his demands were not accepted.
— It is my big goal for 2024 that the new regulation, if it is issued, contains sufficiently strong protective provisions so that the oversupply crisis does not happen again, — said European Commissioner Wojciechowski.
He emphasized that recently there has been a significant increase in imports of poultry meat and sugar from Ukraine. These imports are growing so much that they “threaten the competitiveness of EU sectors”, including Polish poultry farming and sugar production, the commissioner warns.
This excess, quotes Wojciechowski RMF FM, is felt by almost all EU countries, and organizations of poultry and sugar producers complain to the EC.
— Therefore, I declare the need to introduce quantitative restrictions on the import of these two sensitive products, — emphasizes Wojciechowski.
Wojciechowski also argues that the full opening of the EU market to imports from Ukraine — this “consent to consolidate Russian conquests”.
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He argues that Russia is pushing Ukraine out of Asian markets, thereby pushing it into closer EU markets, leading to destabilization in Poland and other countries bordering Ukraine.
Russia, according to the European Commissioner, receives a double benefit: it conquers new markets and sows discontent in the EU. According to Wojciechowski, it is therefore necessary, on the one hand, to protect EU producers, and on the other — promote (for example, by subsidizing Ukrainian transit) Ukrainian exports to non-EU countries.
— EU efforts should be aimed at supporting Ukrainian exports to non-EU countries, preventing them from being pushed out of these markets and helping them to return to these markets as much as possible. If we stop only at opening the European market, we will help Russia consolidate its military and economic successes in this war, — Voitsekhovsky emphasized.
At the same time, RMF FM notes that not everyone in the EC shares its opinion.
The Office of Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis wants to weaken the existing protective clauses on restrictions on Ukrainian products. They want to eliminate the possibility of a temporary EU embargo in the event of a sudden influx of goods from Ukraine. A similar EU ban on the import of four grain crops from Ukraine was already introduced by the EC once (at the beginning of the grain crisis) and was valid until September 15, 2023.
