KYIV/RAVA-RUSKA, Ukraine—Slovakia on Monday joined Poland and Hungary in banning grain imports from Ukraine as even Kyiv’s staunchest allies come underneath home stress to protect their agriculture markets.
The warmth is mounting on Brussels to work out a European Union extensive answer after Warsaw and Budapest introduced bans on some imports from Ukraine on the weekend, with different international locations in jap Europe saying they’re additionally contemplating motion.
Farmers say imports from Ukraine have lowered costs and decreased their gross sales. In Poland, the difficulty has created an issue in an election yr for the ruling nationalist Regulation and Justice (PiS) get together that depends on rural areas for a lot of its assist.
“Ukraine wants assist, however the prices of this assist ought to be unfold over all European international locations, not simply the frontline international locations, particularly Poland. We don’t comply with this, as a result of it harms our farmers,” Polish agriculture minister Robert Telus mentioned after talks that started in Warsaw on Monday.
Kyiv mentioned it goals to re-open meals and grain transit through Poland as “a primary step” to ending import bans, however Telus mentioned that no answer had to date been discovered to ensure that the grain in transit wouldn’t find yourself on the native market.
Some Black Sea ports have been blocked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started final yr and logistical bottlenecks trapped massive portions of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced within the EU, in Central European international locations.
The Polish, Hungarian, and Slovakian export and transit bans come as a deal to permit the export of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, regardless of the Ukraine conflict, nears its Could 18 expiry. In the meantime, Russian calls for have left the prospect of an extension of this deal unsure.
The mixed impression of the bans and failure to agree an extension would strand hundreds of thousands of tonnes of grain inside Ukraine, a serious agricultural producer that makes a considerable a part of its gross home product from meals gross sales.
“Step one … ought to be the opening of transit, as a result of it’s fairly essential and it’s the factor that ought to be carried out unconditionally and after that we’ll discuss different issues,” Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky mentioned earlier than the talks in Warsaw.
To stop any grain getting into its market, Poland’s ban additionally lined transit by the nation, which imported 2.45 million tonnes of grain, or three quarters of whole imports, from Ukraine in 2022, Polish Agriculture Ministry knowledge confirmed.
The bans have left truck drivers stranded for a number of days in lengthy visitors jams on the border baffled.
“We will’t go in both course. Sure, the Poles reached out to us, I’m very grateful to them. I’m immensely grateful, the entire of Ukraine is, the entire world even. However now, Poland doesn’t let [us] in for some purpose,” Mykola Bervin, a driver from Zhytomyr in Ukraine, informed Reuters.
Bervin mentioned he had been caught for 3 days and the tailback was greater than 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) lengthy.
EU Motion ‘Inevitable’
Slovakia authorised halting imports indefinitely following Poland’s transfer, though it maintained transit, whereas the BTA information company reported that Bulgaria’s agriculture minister additionally mentioned the nation may restrict imports.
Istvan Nagy, Hungary’s farm minister, mentioned an answer was wanted past the nationwide degree, calling eventual EU measures inevitable. The Czech Republic additionally urged an EU-wide answer whereas saying it will not introduce a ban itself for now.
Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia raised the difficulty with the European Fee final month, saying tariffs on Ukrainian imports ought to be thought of, whereas states have additionally pushed for an EU buy mechanism to purchase up low-cost grain.
Telus mentioned that six international locations want to meet with the EU commissioner liable for commerce to discover a answer.
A senior EU official mentioned EU envoys would focus on Poland and Hungary’s bans on Wednesday—after the bloc’s government mentioned on Sunday that unilateral motion was unacceptable.
The official mentioned low international costs and demand meant grain was staying within the bloc quite than being bought on.
By Pavel Polityuk, Pawel Florkiewicz, and Andriy Perun
