The EU will increase trade quotas for Ukraine
The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU member states agreed on preliminary agreements reached regarding inter-institutional negotiations with the EU Council and the European Commission on trade standards for Ukraine, as stated on Wednesday after the meeting of the Committee in Brussels, according to UNIAN.
On June 20th, a version of trade preferences, on which a compromise was reached, was supported by the Committee of the European Parliament on international trade. This issues will be discussed and a decision made by the European Parliament at a plenary session in July and the Council of the European Union.
It was previously reported, that on June 14th, as a result of inter-institutional negotiations, the parties reached a compromise, according to which quotas for tomatoes, wheat, corn, and honey will be increased, but not to the extent previously proposed by the European Commission. Further, urea was excluded from the proposals.
In particular, the following additional annual quotas were established: Honey at 2,500 tons, processed tomatoes at 3,000 tons, wheat at 65,000 tons, corn at 625,000 thousand tons, and barley at 325,000 tons.
Preferences will be introduced for up to three years, as an addition to the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement.
In September last year the European Commission proposed to increase quotas for the export of a number of Ukrainian goods. In particular, corn by 650,000 tons, wheat by 100,000 tons, barley by 350,000 tons, cereals and processed grain by 7,800 tons, oats by 4,000 tons, honey by 3,000 tons, grape juice by 500,000, and processed tomatoes by 5,000 tons.
According to the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Kutovyi, the economic effect of the European Parliament's decision to increase annual quotas on duty-free import of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU will amount to about 196.95 million dollars.
The Economic Development Ministry said they expect the final decision of the EU on granting Ukraine additional trade preferences to be made before the Ukraine-EU summit, which will be held in Kyiv on July 13th.