The restrictions imposed by five Member States of the European Union (EU) to import Ukrainian cereals to protect farmers may be extended until September 15The European Commission announced this Monday.
In May 2022, shortly after the start of the Russian offensive, The EU suspended customs duties on products from Ukraine for a year and organized to allow it to export its grains after the closure of the shipping routes through the Black Sea.
But the measure brought a sharp increase in corn, wheat or sunflower arrivals in Ukraine’s neighboring European countrieswhich caused the saturation of the silos due to logistical problems and the collapse of local prices.
In April, the executive arm of the EU allowed five of its member countries (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania) to block the marketing of various cereals from Ukraine until June 5.
Are “temporary and exceptional” measures They may now be extended until mid-September, a period that should be used to “improve” the logistic structures for grain transportation to relieve these countries, said the Commission, which governs the trade policy of the bloc of 27 member states.
The only condition that the EU had imposed to block Ukrainian cereals is that the States did not prevent their transit to other countries.
The restrictions applied within the EU had been harshly criticized by kyiv, which asked Brussels not to extend them beyond June 5, and by 12 other states in the bloc.