The EU Council has updated the draft agreement providing for the expansion of duty-free trade with Ukraine, Radio Liberty sources from EU diplomatic circles familiar with the discussions reported.
The interlocutors explained on condition of anonymity that the updated version of the draft agreement partially takes into account the demands of Poland and France, that is, it updates the base period to be taken into account when determining the volume of deliveries of Ukrainian agricultural products. It is proposed to focus not only on 2022 and 2023, but also on the second half of 2021.
This was rejected by Ukraine, supported by a number of EU member states, which advocated giving Ukraine the opportunity to earn money by selling, in particular, its agricultural products. The previous draft of the agreement, agreed with the European Parliament, assumed that the quotas for the next period, starting in June this year, would be calculated based on the volume of Ukrainian agricultural imports in 2022-2023, when Ukraine already had advantages, namely no tariffs and quotas.
According to European Commission estimates expressed at a closed meeting of ambassadors of EU member states to whom the updated draft agreement was presented, Ukraine will lose 86 million euros if the second half of 2021 is also used as a basis for calculation. In total, the restrictions were estimated at 2021 million euros in losses for the Ukrainian budget based on import estimates for the half-years of 2022, 2023 and 331.
“Poland and France,” says the Radio Liberty interlocutor, “have spoken out in favor of the updated version of the agreement and have won the support of a number of EU countries, including Italy, Hungary and Austria. The changes are rejected by, for example, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, the Baltic States and Luxembourg,” the report continues.
Source: APKinform (Ukraine)