{"id":32872,"date":"2025-06-30T19:39:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32872"},"modified":"2025-06-30T19:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:39:23","slug":"eu-to-boost-food-exports-to-ukraine-as-part-of-updated-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32872","title":{"rendered":"EU to boost food exports to Ukraine as part of updated trade deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Simply sign up to the <!-- -->EU trade<!-- --> myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=1fdfff78-9e2b-4619-bc77-d2e257f4766f&amp;concept-id=b88440cb-dc20-46ae-86fe-5cc08a7f1586\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The EU has struck an outline agreement with Ukraine to boost its food exports to the war-torn country in a deal that aims to appease the bloc\u2019s powerful\u00a0farm lobby.<\/p>\n<p>The partners will update their prewar free trade agreement, with Ukraine lowering tariffs on imports. It also agreed to match the EU\u2019s farm production standards in areas such as animal welfare and pesticides by 2028.<\/p>\n<p>The move follows years of protests by farmers in neighbouring countries who claimed Ukrainian products were flooding their markets after Brussels moved to support Kyiv\u2019s economy when Russia invaded its neighbour.<\/p>\n<p>Countries including Hungary and Poland have continued to ban some Ukrainian imports despite pressure from Brussels, which will now expect those member states to lift them, according to EU officials.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/3852af3b-2093-409c-a1c7-ede4e1f0923d\" data-trackable=\"link\">Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/a>, the EU trade commissioner, said the agreement was the \u201cbest possible outcome under difficult geopolitical conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>While showing support to Ukraine by lowering some EU tariffs, <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_25_1672\" data-trackable=\"link\">the accord<\/a> \u201cis also a response to concerns voiced by our member states, farmers and food producers,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The EU abolished quotas and tariffs on Ukrainian imports in June 2022 to support its economy after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/war-in-ukraine\" data-trackable=\"link\">Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion<\/a> and blockade of the Black Sea, the export route for much of Ukraine\u2019s agricultural goods.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But after protests in countries including Poland, Bulgaria and France, it placed limits on some key products such as sugar, wheat and eggs.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A7638b1ac-3af1-4dae-bfa0-a342ce878b81?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A7638b1ac-3af1-4dae-bfa0-a342ce878b81?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A7638b1ac-3af1-4dae-bfa0-a342ce878b81?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=3 3x\" width=\"2288\" height=\"1526\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"n-content-picture__caption o3-editorial-typography-caption\"><span>Polish farmers protesting against Ukrainian grain imports in 2024<\/span><span> <!-- -->\u00a9 Omar Marques\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On June 6 it reintroduced prewar tariff and quota levels as a temporary move ahead of talks on a final deal.<\/p>\n<p>Sefcovic said quotas would increase but remain below historic trade volumes to \u201censure EU market stability\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>There will also be a safeguard clause that will curtail imports that cause \u201cserious difficulties\u201d for a member state.<\/p>\n<p>Farming bodies led by Copa-Cogeca, the agriculture lobby group, said it needed to see the final details of the proposed agreement, which must be approved by member states and Kyiv.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we look positively on some aspects presented today concerning the alignment of standards and safeguard mechanisms, including also the impact on member state level, we remain concerned about the outcome on the protection of sensitive sectors, and the potential exclusion of some products, such as barley or ethanol, from such mechanisms,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine wants to join the bloc and has already agreed to align with its food standards.<\/p>\n<p>Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, special trade representative at the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, said he expected increases of around 20-30 per cent in quotas for its exports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not competing with EU producers but exporters to the EU, such as Brazil and Thailand. That should be factored in with a real liberalisation of trade.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He also called for the full details. \u201cUkraine business needs predictability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Ukrainian Agribusiness Club said: \u201cIt is very likely that the new arrangement will still mean net losses for the Ukrainian agrifood producers, whose sales to Europe continue to form a major share of export revenues for the economy of a country at war. Any trade restrictions compared to previous years risk weakening the nation as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bilateral trade was worth \u20ac67bn in 2024, up from \u20ac26bn in 2016 when the two sides first signed a trade deal. Last year the EU had an \u20ac18bn annual trade surplus in trade with Kyiv. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/1fdfff78-9e2b-4619-bc77-d2e257f4766f\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the EU trade myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}