On Wednesday, the European Commission announced that it plans to extend the lifting of quotas and tariffs on Ukrainian exports to the European Union until June 2025.

The move renews a past suspension set to expire in June 2024 but with the addition of certain emergency measures after a controversy surrounding exports of grain and other agricultural goods to the bloc last year.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the suspension “strikes the right balance’’ between supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion and protecting EU farmers’ interests.

The commission said that based on the major increase in exports from Ukraine between 2022 and 2023, the new suspension contains emergency provisions to stabilise the EU market in case of major disruption.

According to the EU’s executive arm, should Ukrainian exports dramatically increase for the most sensitive agricultural goods like eggs, sugar, and poultry, tariffs can be reimposed to stabilise imports at average import volumes in 2022 and 2023.

EU tariffs were first lifted in 2022 in solidarity with Ukraine.

However, controls were imposed on Ukrainian grain products exported to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania following protests from farmers in the domestic agricultural industry.

These controls were eventually lifted in September; however, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia introduced import bans of their own.

A similar tariff suspension was introduced for Moldova in 2022. The commission also proposed lifting tariffs again for Moldova until 2025.

The European Parliament and the 27 EU member states were now set to scrutinise the proposals.

(dpa/NAN)