Several dozen MEPs sent a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Thursday 16 January, asking her to take account of the concerns of the agricultural sector when renegotiating the terms of the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement. The Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs), which eliminated tariffs on Ukrainian products after the start of the war, expire in June 2025. The Commission is therefore negotiating a longer-term solution with Kiev under the existing trade agreement.
“We should be careful not to go too far in liberalising trade with Ukraine”, write Benoît Cassart (Renew Europe, Belgian) and Céline Imart (EPP, French) in the letter they initiated. However, they also reiterated their full support for Ukraine and their commitment to helping the country rebuild.
According to the signatories of the letter, the safeguard clauses in the regulation on Autonomous Trade Measures are inadequate, as their trigger threshold is too high. These clauses have almost all been activated since the regulation came into force. Tariffs have therefore been reintroduced on oats, sugar, eggs, groats and honey.
Representatives from these sectors also called for a balanced approach to further liberalising trade with Ukraine, in a joint statement on Wednesday 15 January.
MEPs also warn that “over-liberalisation” could lead to unilateral measures imposed by some EU Member States, and therefore to unequal conditions across the continent.
See the MPs’ letter: https://aeur.eu/f/f3n (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)