Bratislava will further extend and tighten the rules for the commodities’ transit and has also ban the import of Ukrainian honey, sugar, malt and soybeans, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister and Smer party member Richard Takáč said on Wednesday.
Until now, the Slovak ban has been applied to four commodities only – wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds. Takáč defended the ban’s extension, claiming that importing Ukrainian grain caused Slovak farmers financial severe issues.
“Last year, farmers in Slovakia calculated that importing Ukrainian grain caused them a loss reaching about €110 million. Meanwhile, a compensation Slovak republic was given by the European Commission was at the level of about €5 million,” claimed the minister.
The material presented by the Ministry of Agriculture also assumes that all the other transiting agricultural products from Ukraine will be subject to a customs seal.
Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary imposed unilateral bans on imports from Ukraine after the EU-approved ban expired on 15 September. This provoked a sharp reaction from Kyiv, which threatened to sue the countries in the WTO.
The crisis was averted after Slovakia and Ukraine agreed on a licence-based grain trading system. At the same time, the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture said Bratislava’s restrictions on Ukrainian grain would remain in place until the new system was launched.
EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that even though he is attentive to the issues of the Slovak agricultural sector, he does not deem the unilateral measures Slovakia opts for to be the ideal solution. At the same time, he reiterated that he is ready to search for a constructive pan-European solution to the issue.
(Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)
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