Ukraine will soon reach an agreement with Poland, – Taras Kachka

Ukraine will soon reach an agreement with Poland, – Taras Kachka

Ukraine’s trade representative Taras Kachka said that negotiations with Poland will soon lead to measures to protect Polish farmers. This should ease tensions and stop protests on the Polish border.

“We are very close to developing measures that will be individual, temporary and useful in restoring trust between all stakeholders,” Kaczka told Euractiv . Speaking after the European Parliament’s trade committee (INTA) voted to extend trade benefits for Ukraine until June 2025, Kachka said Kyiv was ready to move to a more flexible trading system between the EU and Ukraine.

He said Ukraine was ready to “discuss the interests of its neighbors,” recognizing the concerns of farmers in Poland, as well as Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. The European Commission’s trade liberalization proposal - so-called autonomous trade measures (ATMs) - envisages installing an "emergency brake" in case the influx of "sensitive" Ukrainian products (eggs, sugar and poultry) exceeds average import volumes. in 2022 and 2023.

In the interview, Kachka welcomed the approval of the proposal by the European Parliament’s trade committee and went further by opening the door to a renegotiation of trade relations between the EU and Ukraine. “We are ready for the necessary rules or instruments in our bilateral trade,” he said. Answering a question about the unilateral bans on Ukrainian imports that are still in force in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, Kachka said that “in an emergency” certain disruptions in trade policy can be tolerated, but “not forever.”