Five countries are asking the European Commission to return customs duties on Ukrainian grain

Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary are asking the European Commission to return the duty on Ukrainian grain due to “unfair competition”.

Agriculture ministers of five EU countries have sent a letter to the European Commission with a request to take measures, because cheaper Ukrainian agricultural products are allegedly “swallowing up their export markets”,Reuters  reports.

The five signatories are EU countries that produce significantly more wheat and maize than they need, which is key to Europe’s food security and the EU’s strategic sovereignty, the ministers said.

“That is why Brussels needs to introduce measures that will protect the markets of the member states bordering Ukraine, and at the same time help them use their export potential to the fullest extent,” the letter says.

The document says that one of these measures could be the introduction of import duties on the most sensitive agricultural products.

The ministers also emphasized that after the EU suspended import quotas and duties on grain from Ukraine, farmers in five countries “suffered significant losses.”

The ministers called on the European Commission to check whether Ukrainian production standards meet EU standards.