Protective measures against agricultural imports from Ukraine are insufficient, says Polish minister

Poland believes that the current protective measures for the import of Ukrainian agricultural products are insufficient, and the mechanism for refunding duties should be automatic.

This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture of Poland Stefan Krajewski, Interfax reports.

According to him, European countries need to improve response mechanisms, in particular, the automatic introduction of duties in case of exceeding the average indicators of previous years during the import of sensitive products.

“This is an initiative of Poland, but supported by other countries, mainly neighboring Ukraine, as well as Austria. We demand greater control over imports from third countries. We believe that these imports often do not meet the standards and requirements set for European farmers. This creates unequal competition,” Stefan Krajewski said during a break between the meeting of the European Union Agriculture Ministers (Agrifish) in Brussels.

The Minister of Agriculture added that Poland, first of all, proposed to strengthen checks at the borders, especially regarding the quality and safety of products. Secondly, it requires the European Commission to regularly — monthly — monitor import volumes and their impact on the domestic markets of individual countries, and not just the EU as a whole. Thirdly, Poland considers it necessary to create a special financial reserve — a compensation fund.

“Farmers who suffer losses due to excessive inflow of goods under free trade agreements should receive support. This applies not only to Ukraine, but also to future agreements, for example, with Mercosur countries. We cannot allow European agriculture to become a victim of trade liberalization,” the Polish representative emphasized.

According to him, many countries share Poland’s concerns. These are countries that directly feel the pressure of agricultural imports on the markets of grain, sugar and poultry.

“We need automatic response mechanisms: if the volume of imports of a certain product exceeds the average figures for previous years, duties should be returned automatically. This is the only way to give farmers a sense of stability,” the Polish Minister of Agriculture believes.

Stefan Krajewski also stressed that Poland will continue to pressure the European Commission to ensure that the necessary changes are taken into account in future regulations.

Read also: Polish companies may go bankrupt due to refusal to transship Ukrainian grain.