Ambassador of Ukraine: restrictions on Russian goods should also apply to transit to third countries

In the atmosphere of the upcoming European Parliament elections, the long-term farmers’ protests in the bloc are causing a big headache in Brussels, especially in Poland. Citing overly strict environmental requirements and unfair competition from products from third countries, farmers are even blocking border crossing points with Ukraine, whose products had EU customs tariffs abolished in 2012. Loads of grain from the war-torn country were even demonstratively dumped several times.

Brussels hopes to calm heated minds by pushing the application of high tariffs on imports of agricultural goods from Russia and Belarus, which have also grown significantly. On the other hand, with regard to Ukraine, the compromise offer, that is, for certain products, such as eggs, poultry, corn, oats and others, quotas could be set, after exceeding which customs duties will have to be paid. There is no final agreement on these proposals yet.

As the situation is so bad and potential decisions from Brussels are just around the corner, it is clear that Kyiv must gather support votes in the European Union. Today, the ambassador of Ukraine to Latvia came to visit our Minister of Agriculture.

Until now, Kyiv has been relatively cautious about the relevant compromise offer, but it is recognized that at least some restrictions have been agreed to. After compliments on the view of Riga from the office of the Minister of Agriculture, the main topic of discussion is the upcoming decisions of Brussels. Ukraine hopes that restrictions on Russian agricultural products would apply not only to imports into the Union, but also to transit to third countries.

“In our opinion, we should simply stop doing business with Russia and Belarus so that they cannot continue this war. This is not about the economy, this is about their ability to continue the war. This is a security issue, it is no longer a trade issue,” says Ukrainian Ambassador to Latvia Anatolijs Kucevols.

We can discuss, but we will not direct it ourselves – this is how the position of the Minister of Agriculture can be briefly described regarding the possibility of restricting transit to Russia. Food security in the world is very important here, so that new flows of refugees do not arise.

In response to the question that there are other ways for Russia to deliver its grain to the global south, the minister states that this is a geopolitical issue: “Of course, there are different possibilities and maybe even different ways, but let’s remember what happened when Ukraine ports were blocked. Immediately the United Nations got involved, many different other countries. I remind you once again that this is a geopolitical issue.”

At the same time, the minister hopes that the solutions currently proposed by Brussels will succeed in stopping farmers’ protests and blockades in Central Europe.