Poland opposes duty-free trade with Ukraine, the Agriculture and Rural Development Minister of Poland, Czeslaw Siekierski, stated in a letter to the First Deputy Head of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, Report informs via TASS.
Poland is “fundamentally opposed” to duty-free trade with Ukraine, the document says. According to the Polish minister, the complete liberalization of EU trade with Ukraine “brought results opposite to those intended.”
The problems caused by “excessive imports” of Ukrainian food concern not only grains, “but also sugar, chicken meat, fruits (especially frozen raspberries) or apple concentrate,” Czeslaw Siekierski said.
The minister believes that it is necessary to begin negotiations with Ukraine “on consistent mutual liberalization [of trade], which would be accompanied by a gradual transition of Ukrainian agriculture to EU standards and laws.”
Earlier, Siekierski announced the negative impact of Ukrainian sugar exports to the EU on Polish agriculture. “[Previously] we were an exporter of sugar to various European countries, but now Ukrainian sugar has gone there, and there is no possibility of exporting our sugar,” he said.
