The European Parliament broadly approved, by 444 votes to 128 with 74 abstentions, the agreement to resolve the Ukrainian chicken crisis at its plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 26 November. However, MEPs stressed that there was no reason to claim victory.
A brief reminder of the circumstances surrounding this vote: in 2016, imports of poultry meat from Ukraine increased dramatically by 66% in volume. A peak largely due to the increase in imports, excluding tax, under CN code 0207 13 70 (‘other bone-in poultry cuts’). Behind this increase, the EU discovered the invention of a new cut including chicken breast, a flagship product for European producers already under pressure (see EUROPE 12363/8, 12273/15, 12156/2).
Denouncing a practice contrary to the spirit of the 2016 Association Agreement between the two sides, the Europeans called on the Ukrainians to urgently return to the negotiating table to reach a compromise.
The negotiated solution between the EU and Ukraine therefore modifies these trade preferences for poultry meat products by treating boneless and boneless chicken breasts on a single tariff line and increasing the current quota for these products by 50,000 tonnes. For imports under the two ‘other cuts’ tariff lines, the most-favoured-nation rate is restored (€100.8/100 kg/net) (see EUROPE 12273/15).
This agreement, which takes the form of an exchange of letters, has therefore rectified, at the expense of the EU and its producers, a legal loophole exploited by Ukrainian producers.
In a debate the day before, MEPs called on the Commission to learn from these developments and to pay more attention to the implementation of free trade agreements.
“I believe that this issue is the embodiment of the naiveté that the European Union can sometimes show in international trade”, said Anne Sander (EPP, France). She also expressed regret that the Agriculture Committee’s request to introduce a so-called ‘new generation’ safeguard clause, which would suspend or reduce the preferences granted in the agreement in the event of serious prejudice to producers in one party, had not been accepted.
The amended plan will come into force after validation by the EU Council. Ukraine must also ratify the agreement, the Commission hopes to ratify it as early as next week.
Read the European Parliament agreement and resolution: https://bit.ly/2pRzDDo (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)