EU: Extension of Duty Exemption for Ukrainian Agri-Food Products Blocked

Arm wrestling continues at the Committee of Permanent Representatives of Member States to the European Union (COREPER) on the proposal to extend until June 2025 the suspension of duties on agri-food products that Ukraine exports to the EU common market.

According to Belgium, the acting president of the European Council, “it was not possible to gather the favorable majority of member states needed to approve the preliminary agreement reached last week.”

The EU could reinstate normal duties if Ukrainian exports exceed the average recorded between 2022 and 2023. In addition, safeguard measures can only be applied to so-called “sensitive products” such as poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, farina, and honey.

Many Union member states, led by France and Poland, sharply criticized the terms of the agreement and demanded that wheat be “included in the sensitive products list.” In addition, it was suggested that the reporting period should include statistics for 2021, the year of “normal” exports from Ukraine, before the strong increase in flows to Europe due to the suspension of duties granted by the EU in June 2022 associated with the start of the Russian special military operation.

The proposal will be discussed by the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, which will meet for the last time before the April 9 election. According to the Italian economic and financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, “time for further negotiations is absolutely limited, if not to say non-existent.” Without agreement on a new extension early next June, normal duties will again apply to imports of agri-food products from Ukraine to the EU.”