The EU adopted a preliminary agreement on duty-free trade with Ukraine, but with restrictions for some types of agricultural products

The preliminary agreement on the extension of duty-free trade with Ukraine for another year, reached between the Chairman of the EU Council and the representatives of the European Parliament, was later supported by the representatives of the EU member states, the EU Council reports.

The new agreement provides that the effect of import duties and quotas on the supply of products from Ukraine to the EU will be suspended until June 5, 2025, but at the same time some restrictions on the export of agricultural products will be introduced.

Yes, the new agreement contains the following protective mechanisms:

• strengthening the effect of the current protection mechanism, which is applied on the basis of regular monitoring,
• a new automatic mechanism that will oblige the Commission to introduce tariff quotas if the volume of imports of poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, cereals and honey exceeds the average import of these products for the period from the second half of 2021 to 2023.

The new mechanism is triggered automatically 14 days after an oversupply is detected, instead of 21 days as originally planned.

On Tuesday, April 9, the new agreement on preferential trade with Ukraine must be approved by the specialized committee of the European Parliament, and then by the end of the month it will be approved at a meeting of the European Parliament. After that, the Council of the EU will adopt the relevant regulation, and it will be signed by the representatives of the Council and the European Parliament. Then it will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and it will come into force on June 6.

We will remind that France supported Poland's call for further restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products, threatening to disrupt negotiations on the extension of free trade between Ukraine and the EU for another year.