EU completes last step to extend preferential tariffs with Ukraine

The European Union fulfilled the last formal step to extend for one year, until June 6, 2024, the exemption of tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers planned for imports from Ukraine, a gesture with which the bloc wants to help Kiev to recover their trade routes abroad, weighed down by the Russian invasion.

The measure has been endorsed by the trade ministers of the European Union at a meeting in Brussels and will enter into force on June 6, once it is initialed by the EU institutions and published in the Official Journal of the EU.

“Russia’s unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine has had a devastating impact on the country’s economy,” said Swedish Trade Minister Johan Forssell, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency. while he stressed that the extension is proof of “unequivocal support” for Ukraine but also allows the EU “to protect, if necessary, the internal market from significant increases in agricultural imports.

The exemption that will be maintained for another year includes the total suspension of tariffs for industrial goods, the suspension of entry prices for fruits and vegetables and anti-dumping measures, and includes safeguard measures for steel imports for one year.

From the European Union, moreover, they insist that these measures, together with military, financial and humanitarian support, will help the invaded country in its recovery in the long term.

The EU and Ukraine have had a free trade association since 2016 to promote trade between the two regions, but it is a gradual application agreement and there are still sectors that do not benefit from the principle of “zero quotas and zero tariffs” that with this exemption the EU grants to Ukrainian trade.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: Christian Lue, Unsplash)

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