France and a number of other European countries demand to strengthen the restrictions on the import of food products from Ukraine in order to prevent destabilization in the agricultural markets of the EU.
What is known about France's and other EU countries' requirements regarding restrictions on Ukraine's agricultural product imports?
According to the publication's journalists, EU countries are currently discussing extending the duty-free export of agricultural products from Ukraine to European countries for another year.
Meanwhile, Brussels also seeks to satisfy the demands of European farmers, who have been protesting EU environmental regulations and cheap agricultural product imports from Ukraine for many months.
The French Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fenault, notes that the destabilisation of EU agricultural markets due to the duty-free export of Ukrainian agricultural products can weaken public support for Kyiv, which is against the interests of the EU and Kyiv.
The European Commission proposes to extend the duty-free import of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU until June 2025 with restrictions on poultry meat, eggs and sugar.
If imports exceed the average level of similar indicators in 2022 and 2023, tariffs will be automatically introduced.
Oats, corn, cereals and honey were also added to the list.
What are the restrictions on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine proposed by France?
France's agriculture minister noted that wheat should also be included and insisted that the "stopping threshold" should be the average for 2021-2023.
This would include the year before the full-scale Russian invasion, when tariffs and quotas limited Ukrainian exports to the EU.
Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval, who held the EU presidency for six months, said he expected a solution to be found in the coming days without specifying what the decision would entail.
