EU ambassadors will try again to agree on trade with Ukraine: they are considering a compromise
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On Wednesday, EU ambassadors will again try to approve the extension of the agreement on duty-free trade with Ukraine.
This is reported by “European Truth”.
This will be the third meeting of representatives of the EU countries after a compromise was tentatively agreed with the European Parliament a week ago, which was later rejected due to the opposition of a group of countries led by Poland and France.
Warsaw and Paris, with the support of a group of countries neighboring Ukraine, sought to include the year 2021 when calculating the volume of quotas for Ukrainian agricultural products, when the volume of Ukrainian agricultural imports was lower.
According to RMF FMcurrently the draft agreement provides that the average indicator is calculated for the years 2022-2023, when Ukrainian imports were already higher.
As the Polish radio station learned from sources, a compromise is now being considered, which involves including only half a year, starting from June, in the calculation instead of the whole of 2021. Such a compromise would mean a partial reduction in the supply of Ukrainian food.
France and Poland are also still trying to apply quantitative restrictions on Ukrainian wheat, which currently only apply to sugar and eggs, and after a compromise with the European Parliament, also to poultry, groats, oats and honey.
France wants to include barley in the list. However, according to the radio station, it will be very difficult for her to achieve this. The Minister of Agriculture of Belgium, David Clarinval, made it clear on Tuesday that there was no agreement on this from the countries of the European Union.
“The Belgians are very reluctant to make concessions, as making changes would mean further negotiations with the European Parliament and a very tight calendar for approving the agreement, which is due to enter into force on June 6 for another year. This turns everything upside down,” the EU source said.
On Monday, EU ambassadors discussed the renewal and extension of the agreement, but did not approve it. Belgian Presidency postponed the approval of the agreement on Wednesday, as many countries have not decided on a position.
Last Wednesday the ambassadors also failed to approve the agreement, because Poland and France consider the text agreed with the European Parliament to be insufficient.
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