The European Commission has informed Euronews which will reintroduce duties on imports of eggs and oats from Ukraine, after duties on these and other products had been abolished at the beginning of the Russian invasion to support the Ukrainian economy. It is a consequence of the new tariff regime for Ukraine introduced on 6 June, which extended the zero tariffs for some products for another year, but which also introduced a series of safeguard mechanisms to protect specific sectors.
For some products – such as eggs, poultry, oats, sugar, corn, cereals and honey – import thresholds have been set, above which duties will come back into force, making Ukrainian products more expensive for consumers. The thresholds were requested and obtained by the governments of Poland and France, whose farmers had complained about the competition they said they faced from Ukrainian products.
After less than two weeks, the new thresholds, calculated on the basis of an average of imports in the pre-war period, were exceeded. Consequently, according to the new rules, the European Commission will reintroduce duties in the next two weeks. According to officials heard from Euronews sugar is also about to reach a threshold that would trigger the reintroduction of duties.
