EU agrees to cap tariff-free Ukraine farm imports

Beset by angry farmer protests, EU to implement ‘safeguards’ to prevent cheap imports flooding market.

The European Union has agreed a provisional deal to cap duty-free agricultural imports from Ukraine.

The agreement was reached on Mar 20 (Wednesday) as member states and lawmakers extended a policy of tariff exemptions on many Ukrainian farm products.

However, after farmers engaged in protests across the bloc against the cheap imports that were hurting their own sales, limits were placed on the duty-free import of some items.

The tariff exemptions, first granted in 2022, will be extended for a further year to June 2025. But several grains as well as eggs, poultry, honey and sugar were added to a list of products with import “safeguards” intended to prevent cheap imports from flooding the EU market.

Tariffs will be applied on these products if imports exceed the average levels of 2022 and 2023. The European Commission had suggested using 2021 – when Ukrainian exports were not limited by war – as the benchmark.

The regulation “provides for an emergency brake”, the European Parliament said in a press release.

A commitment has also been secured for monitoring by the European Commission of imports of Ukrainian wheat and other cereals and for action to be taken if EU markets are disrupted.