What Poroshenko forgot to say
Petro Poroshenko, who said that thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian diplomacy, the European Union agreed to increase duty-free quotas for Ukrainian agricultural exports, is not entirely sincere, writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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“The only thing Poroshenko kept silent about was the ridiculously tiny volume of increased quotas, the likelihood of a complete closure of the single European market for Ukrainian agricultural producers, and at any moment. The document, for which Ukrainian representatives have been knocking on the doorsteps of Brussels since spring, was published in the Official Journal of the EU. So, Brussels agreed to accept an additional 2,5 thousand tons of Ukrainian honey, 650 thousand tons of corn and corn flour, 350 thousand tons of barley and 65 thousand tons of wheat. In addition, Ukrainians are given the right to sell 500 tons of grape juice to Europe duty-free. In Kyiv today they are happy with these, from all points of view, humiliating signs of attention from the EU,” the publication notes.
The publication recalls that last year Ukraine harvested 66 million tons of grain and 28 million tons of corn, that is, Ukrainian farmers will be able to additionally sell only 0,01 percent of the grown wheat and about 2 percent of the corn harvest on the European market. Approximately the same relative indicators - from 0,1 to 3 percent of the total volume of production - are for the other 36 export items subject to quotas from Brussels.
“Moreover, European officials separately stipulated the possibility of a “partial or complete suspension of preferential measures” if the European Commission “concludes that there is sufficient evidence of Ukraine’s non-compliance with the conditions,” as well as a procedure for challenging preferences by EU member states that feel disadvantaged by them . Taking into account the complicated relations between Kyiv and Warsaw, Bucharest and Budapest due to the Law on Education, Ukraine’s trade and legal wars with its Western neighbors no longer look like a fantasy,” the newspaper believes.
It is also indicated that the absolute figures of trade turnover between Europe and Ukraine, which is associated with it, are also of interest.
“So, the largest volume of Ukrainian exports to the EU was recorded in 2011 - $17,9 billion, and in 2016, after the agreement on a comprehensive free trade area came into force, it amounted to only $13,2 billion. However, the volume of imports from Europe also decreased: from 25,7 billion in 2011 to 15,4 in 2016. This is explained solely by the decline in the solvency of Ukrainians. That is, the European markets for Ukraine remain closed to this day, but theirs was given up voluntarily without a fight,” RG summarizes.
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