Kiev Says Warsaw Insisting on Expanding Tariff Rate Quotas for UKRAINIAN Agrifood Imports
Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski said during online negotiations with Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Nikolai Solsky on Wednesday that Poland wanted to impose a number of restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural produce, Ukrainian media said with reference to Solsky’s televised remarks.
“Apart from working issues, they [Poland] formulated and reiterated that they would like to further restrict imports [of some agricultural products] from Ukraine, which is actually no longer a secret. In the Polish counterpart’s view, this would help them in talking to the protesters for ending the protest in Poland, on the Polish-Ukrainian border,” Solsky said.
Ukrainian agrifood imports are only part of the demands put forward by farmers protesting in Poland and elsewhere in Europe, and numerous other demands do not depend on Ukraine in any way and can be settled only through common European efforts or through a consensus between all of the EU members, Solsky said.
These include, in particular, the relaxing of environmental standards consistent with the green agenda, which is among the European Commission’s top priorities, he said.
“We believe the protest cannot go beyond some limits and be held in its current form. Blocking the border goes against not only numerous agreements but also against our common objectives,” Solsky said.
The protesters should somehow reduce the heat of their emotions for resuming the Ukrainian-Polish border operations, he said.
As reported, the Polish Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry proposed adjusting the threshold restrictions on imports of Ukrainian poultry, eggs, and sugar and expanding the tariff rate quotas for Ukrainian grain crops, rapeseed, berries, and fruits as the European Commission extends the autonomous trade measures for Ukraine.
