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EU working on extending autonomous trade measures for Ukraine

24.01.2024 13:00
The European Union is working on extension of autonomous trade measures for Ukraine for another year, and is to present the details soon, after Poland has called on the bloc to safeguard its internal market. 
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  • EU working on extending autonomous trade measures for Ukraine
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Photo:kie-ker, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The EU's top trade official Valdis Dombrovskis announced on Tuesday the EU was to come up with a proposal to extend autonomous trade measures for Ukraine until June 2025, in an effort to safeguard, among others, the Polish internal market from an influx of goods from the country's eastern neighbour.

However, Janusz Wojciechowski, the European Commissioner for Agriculture publicly disagreed with Dombrovskis proposals, as he told Polish Radio the EU plan was not enough, because it sets 2023 as a referential year for the limits it is to introduce.

He pointed out that last year Poland has seen a large influx of eggs, poultry, and sugar from Ukraine, and so these sectors would remain unprotected.

Poland’s new agriculture minister Czesław Siekierski stressed it was a crucial issue for the whole European Union, as "the influx of good from Ukraine might start influence more and more member countries' markets, eventually all of them."

During his visit to Kiev on Monday, Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk said that Ukraine's president, as well as the country's Cabinet under Denys Shmyhal "reaffirmed their willingness to work together to resolve Poland-Ukraine issues such as grain imports and the border blockade by transport companies."

Tusk stressed that Warsaw and Kyiv would "seek practical solutions in friendly talks and maybe there won't be a need to consult international institutions.”

(tf)

Source: PAP