New EU-Ukraine agri trade quotas to be 'in between' current deal and wartime exemptions

The European Union and Ukraine are negotiating a new deal that will set import quotas on agricultural goods from Ukraine somewhere "in between" current levels and the temporary exemptions granted after Russia's 2022 invasion, the EU's agriculture commissioner told Reuters.

The EU temporarily waived duties and quotas on agricultural products in June 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion to help Ukraine compensate for the higher costs of its exports, after Russia threatened its traditional Black Sea shipping lanes.

Those tariff suspensions expired on Thursday. The EU and Ukraine reverted to the pre-war regime of trade quotas on Friday, while the two sides negotiate a new longer-term deal.

"What will be negotiated will be something in between the quotas under the existing DCFTA and the autonomous trade measures, the volumes that have been exported there," EU agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

The DCFTA refers to Ukraine and the EU's pre-war trade deal. The EU's "autonomous trade measures" temporarily suspended quotas on Ukrainian imports from 2022.

Ukraine's farm minister Vitaliy Koval told Reuters this week that Kyiv was pushing for an agreement on higher quotas than it had before the war. 

Reuters