On Monday 5 June 2023, the European Commission announced the prolongation of trade liberalisation by another year to support Ukraine.
The suspension of import duties, quotas and trade defence measures on Ukrainian exports to the European Union – known as the Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs) - has been in force since Sunday 4 June 2022.
This decision is meant to help Ukraine “to maintain its trade position with the rest of the world, while further deepening its trade relations with the EU,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade who is leading this process at political level. He further added that “the European Commission will not hesitate to act in case national trade bans prevent Ukrainian agricultural goods from reaching countries where they are needed.”
By Friday 15 September 2023, the EU will reportedly phase out the temporary preventive measures adopted on Tuesday 2 May 2023 on imports of wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed from Ukraine under the safeguard of the ATMs Regulation. The scope of these measures is further reduced from seventeen to six tariff lines for the four products covered.
According to the European Commission, these temporary and targeted measures were adopted due to logistical holdups concerning these products in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, on the condition that Member States do not maintain any limiting measures. The phase is expected to allow for improvements to be made to the Solidarity Lanes, to improve transit of agricultural products along corridors and to address challenges to get Ukrainian grain out of the country for this harvest.
A Joint Coordination Platform has been set up in order to coordinate the efforts of the Commission, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as well as Ukraine.
These exceptional and temporary measures are meant to support Ukraine and preserve its ability to export its grains, deemed necessary to feed the world and keep food prices down, in the face of the challenges posed by the Russian aggression against Ukraine and its civilians, the Commission noted.