On Wednesday 12 June, the Commission published its proposal for the signature and provisional application of the Agreement, in the form of an Exchange of Letters, between the European Union and Ukraine. The text amends the trade preferences for poultry meat provided for in the trade part of the 'DCFTA’ Association Agreement between the EU and Kiev, which has been in force since September 2017.
Under the trade component of this agreement, Kiev had obtained a large duty-free export quota, including for its products in the category 'other chicken bone-in cuts' (CN 0207 13 70). An authorisation used fraudulently by a Ukrainian exporter, inventor of a new cut which, after minimal processing, was marketed in the EU as chicken breast, a sensitive product for EU producers (see EUROPE 12156/2).
The Commission had therefore asked the Ukrainian authorities to return to the negotiating table and sealed an agreement with them in March 2019 (see EUROPE 12215/30). This consists in integrating two tariff lines (CN 0207 13 70 and 0207 14 70) into the current 18,400 tonne quota, which will increase to 20,000 tonnes, by 2021, while also increasing its volume by 50,000 tonnes, the proposal states.
The document will be presented to the EU Council Trade Policy Committee (TPC), where some Member States could challenge the increase in these quotas, according to a European source.
To read the proposal: https://bit.ly/2IcfgXW (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)