Ukraine managed to significantly increase quotas for export of sensitive agricultural products to EU – trade rep
The agreements reached recently on the renewal of the free trade agreement between Ukraine and the EU provide for a significant increase in quotas for the export of sensitive agricultural products to the EU compared to those that were in effect before the introduction of autonomous trade preferences (ATM) in 2022 and were renewed from June 6 this year, Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka said.
"Now officially and with figures – we have agreed with the EU to renew the free trade agreement, which allows us to maintain the trade volumes achieved during the period of autonomous trade preferences," he said on Facebook on Friday.
The trade representative told reporters that, following the decision of the association committee in the trade component, the European side published on Friday new proposed quotas, which must be approved by the European Commission decision and agreed by the EU Council, and on the Ukrainian side – by order of the Cabinet of Ministers.
"The formalization of the agreements is expected in a month," Kachka said.
According to him, consultations on the revision of trade conditions within the framework of Article 29 of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, of which the Free Trade Area Agreement (DCFTA) is a part, have been ongoing since June 2 and have yielded good results.
"Of the $800 million in potential losses [from the termination of ATM], we have removed all of them. These (newly approved) conditions collectively do not contain any harm," the trade representative said.
Regarding the transition to EU production standards, which are also part of the agreement, he stressed that all these obligations have already been spelled out in the Association Agreement.
"Ukraine will report annually, and, I hope, in 2028, based on this work, we will proceed to another liberalization of trade conditions," Kachka said noting that the parties have now agreed on the next review of the conditions for trade in agricultural products within the framework of the Association Agreement in three years – in 2028.
The trade representative reported that out of 40 quotas for the export of Ukrainian products to the EU, five have been liberalized in general (mushrooms, fermented milk products, food additives), in four quotas individual goods have been liberalized (for example, grape juice, fructose, higher-fat types of powdered milk), and four quotas have been rearranged.
According to him, the size of the quotas for honey has been increased since 2021 by 483.3% (up to 35,000 tonnes), for sugar and processed starch by 400% (up to 100,000 tonnes and 8,000 tonnes, respectively), barley chips and groats; grains, otherwise processed by 335.8% (up to 34,000 tonnes), bran, husks and residues by 286% (up to 85,000 tonnes).
He said export quotas for milk powder will increase by 208% (to 15,400 tonnes), eggs by 200% (to 18,000 tonnes), malt, processed tomatoes and processed sugar products by 150% (to 17,500 tonnes, 25,000 tonnes and 7,500 tonnes respectively), starch by 144% (to 24,400 tonnes), butter by 133.3% (to 7,000 tonnes), oats by 92.5% (to 7,700 tonnes), corn by 53% (to 1 million tonnes).
As Kachka specified, the export quotas for milk, cream, condensed milk (up to 15,000 tonnes), garlic (up to 750 tonnes), other sugars (up to 30,000 tonnes), apple juice (up to 30,000 tonnes), processed butter products (up to 375 tonnes), sweet corn (up to 2,250 tonnes), mannitol-sorbitol (up to 150 tonnes), processed grain products (up to 3,000 tonnes) have been increased by 50%.
According to him, quotas for sugar syrup exports will increase by 35% (up to 2,800 tonnes), poultry meat by 33.3% (up to 120,000 tonnes), wheat by 30% (up to 1.3 million tonnes), ethanol by 25% (up to 125,000 tonnes) and barley by 22.2% (up to 450,000 tonnes).
The trade representative noted that in relation to the actual trade volumes, 21 out of 34 quotas have a volume greater than the maximum during the period of validity of the preferences, and in three more quotas the volume is greater than the 2024 export.
As Kachka explained, in six quotas in which the volume is less than the 2024 level (powdered milk, eggs, honey, wheat, barley and corn), the terms of trade allow maintaining export volumes.
"And only for three goods the volumes are smaller than during the preferences, but we have minimized the damage," the trade representative said.
According to available data, we are talking about poultry meat, sugar and apple juice, the exports of which from Ukraine to the EU in 2024 amounted to 136,600 tonnes, some 331,800 tonnes and 78,200 tonnes, respectively.