Ukraine is ready to accept restrictions on its trade with the EU in exchange for resolving the dispute with Poland, but under certain conditions.
Ukraine is ready to accept trade restrictions with the EU under conditions
According to Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka, Ukraine is ready to accept restrictions on its trade with the European Union to defuse the acute political dispute with Poland.
At the same time, Kyiv calls on the bloc to ban the import of Russian agricultural products, which still come through Belarus and the Baltic states.
Perhaps we all need a managed approach to trade flows between Ukraine and the EU during a transition period of this kind. As for wheat, it is not Ukraine that creates problems for Polish farmers but Russia.
Taras Kachka
Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade Representative of Ukraine
According to him, Ukraine supports the new measures proposed by Brussels: restrictions on the import of eggs, poultry and sugar from June, as well as the permission for certain countries to close their markets for Ukrainian grain, except for further transit.
Ukraine recently agreed to reroute corn exports to Italy and Spain via the Black Sea instead of the land route through neighbouring countries to ease tensions.
We voluntarily stopped exporting corn to all five neighbouring EU member states. Despite this, we exported another new record — 15 million tons of corn in 2023. Therefore, we have a great demand in other countries. "Ukraine has filled the gaps in EU production," Kachka said.
The deputy minister also accused Russia of inciting protests in Poland. He is sure that Moscow is behind the attack by Polish farmers last month on a train with Ukrainian grain.
Meanwhile, Poland will turn to the European Commission with a proposal to introduce a complete ban on the import of agricultural and food products from Russia and Belarus.
Why are Polish farmers protesting?
On February 9, Polish farmers began blocking roads in Poland and checkpoints on the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Farmers are blocking traffic in six directions — these are the checkpoints "Yagodyn", "Ustylug", "Ugryniv", "Rava-Ruska", "Shegyni" and "Krakivets".
Farmers are protesting due to the alleged influx of Ukrainian goods and against the EU's Green Agreement, which provides for climate neutrality by 2050.
