Why EU must force member states to lift bans on Ukrainian agricultural exports
On 29 October, new agreements between Ukraine and the EU on additional liberalisation of import duties and tariff quotas under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement came into effect.
Yet Poland’s Ministry of Agriculture assured Polish farmers on the very same day that these new arrangements would not affect the existing national ban on imports of certain Ukrainian grains, including wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and rapeseed. Likewise, other countries such as Slovakia and Hungary are in no hurry to lift their unilateral restrictions.
Read more about why these trade disputes between Ukraine and the EU risk becoming a problem for the EU itself in the column by Nazar Bobytskyi of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club’s Brussels Office: A stress test for Brussels: why the EU must demand the lifting of unilateral restrictions on Ukraine.
Bobytskyi argues that these national bans imposed by certain EU member states undermine another important part of the EU’s recent trade deal – the requirement that Ukraine adopt European standards on animal welfare and plant protection products (pesticides) by 2028.
This requirement was initiated by France, where officials argue that European (especially French) farmers must comply with strict environmental and agricultural production standards, bear additional costs and therefore lose competitiveness against imports from third countries that do not follow such rules.
However, according to Bobytskyi, Ukraine’s case exposes the flaws in this logic.
"It creates the impression that no matter how much foreign agricultural producers invest in adopting European standards, they will never gain full access to the EU market, because agricultural trade in the EU is simply too politicised," the EU trade policy expert explains.
He stresses that continuing these national trade embargoes on Ukrainian imports and the resulting disruptions in EU-Ukraine trade sends a dangerous signal to other EU trade partners.
It suggests that the EU Single Market is a fiction, and that the free movement of goods within the Union can be held hostage by the domestic politics of individual member states.
In Bobytskyi’s view, Ukraine should avoid open confrontation with its neighbours and not fuel their internal political conflicts, in which the issue of Ukrainian agricultural imports serves merely as a bargaining chip.
Instead, Kyiv should pursue a balanced strategy, being clear and principled, yet demonstrating constructive solutions.
For example, by improving the export licensing system for "sensitive" agricultural products, showing readiness to coordinate licensing with neighbouring countries to prevent market oversupply of these goods.
"Even if this constructive approach does not yet receive a proper response in these capitals, it will send the right signal to Brussels ahead of the next meetings of the EU Council of Ministers," Bobytskyi concludes.