EU reaches an agreement on agricultural imports from Ukraine

Belgium, which chairs the European Union, said that the bloc’s ambassadors reached an agreement on Wednesday to extend the reception of duty-free food imports from Ukraine.

According to Reuters, the Belgian presidency stated in a post on the X platform that the agreement will now be referred to the European Parliament for approval with the aim of reaching a “quick agreement.”

The European Union reached a temporary agreement on this issue last week, but France and Poland said that the planned restrictions were not sufficient and urged the imposition of more of them to prevent what they described as destabilizing agricultural markets in the European Union.

An informed European Union diplomat said that the new agreement is similar to last week’s agreement, but it changed the reference period used to determine when to implement emergency states that impose customs duties on some products.

The original agreement stipulated the imposition of customs duties on poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, and honey if imports exceeded average levels in 2022 and 2023.

The diplomat said that the new settlement expands the reference period to include the second half of 2021.