On Monday 27 October in Luxembourg, European agriculture ministers will be tackling an explosive subject: safeguard measures designed to protect farmers in the face of trade agreements between the EU and third countries.
In a joint letter to Commissioners Maroš Šefčovič (Trade) and Christophe Hansen (Agriculture), the Hungarian, Romanian and Slovakian agriculture ministers call for the safeguard measures envisaged for the EU-Mercosur agreement (see EUROPE 13730/17) to be extended to other agreements, in particular the EU-Ukraine agreement (‘Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement’, DCFTA).
A preparatory note from these three countries, drawn up with a view to the Agriculture Council on 27 and 28 October, invites the European Commission to present a legislative proposal concerning the EU-Ukraine agreement (see EUROPE 13729/17), which provides for:
- automatically applicable safeguards, with regional quotas for sensitive products (maize, cereals, etc.) calculated on the basis of pre-war trade flows between each frontline Member State and Ukraine, and restrictions triggered immediately if these thresholds are exceeded;
- a compensation fund to compensate local farmers affected by excessive imports, particularly in the most vulnerable sectors.
The signatory countries also emphasise the current absence of customs duties on Ukrainian maize and implicitly call for a review of the tariffs for this product, which are at zero.
The agriculture ministers will also discuss the situation of agricultural markets, particularly in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Link to the note: https://aeur.eu/f/j2x (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)