Press conference, with the participation of Mr Krzysztof Mulawa and Ms Anna Bryłka, manager of European Affairs in the Confederacy, on the parliamentary intervention on the extension of duty-free trade with Ukraine for another year.
Today, at the press conference of the Confederation, Anna Bryłka and Krzysztof Mulawa presented their position on the extension of duty-free trade with Ukraine for another year, on which the decision is to be taken by the European Commission in the coming days.
Anna Bryłka opened the conference presenting the essence of the intervention:
“This week the European Commission is due to decide on duty-free trade with Ukraine, extending it by another year until June 2025. Negotiations are presently underway in the European Commission itself on the details of this regulation."
She besides stressed the concerns about the proposals, which included complex algorithms:
“According to the latest information, these proposals are detrimental to EU agriculture. due to the fact that this proposal includes complex algorithms that would calculate the method of limiting imports of agri-food products from Ukraine, and what is more, the mention year is 2023, which is the erstwhile year, in which this import from Ukraine increased significantly."
Krzysztof Mulawa intervened in the Ministry of Agriculture and agrarian improvement and presented 11 questions to the Minister of Agriculture and agrarian improvement relating to Poland's attitude towards the proposed regulation:
“There are regulations that will not so much be detrimental to the European Union, but will primarily be detrimental to Poland, where Polish agriculture plays a very large function in the European arena. so let me read our contents 11 Questions to the Minister:
1. What position does the Polish government adopt on the regulation temporarily liberalising trade between the European Union and Ukraine for another year, until June 2025?
2. What are the current negotiations of the Polish government with the European Commission on a regulation temporarily liberalising trade between Poland and Ukraine until June 2025? Has the interministerial import squad for agri-food products from Ukraine been appointed by the government, specifically the Ministry of Technology and Development, competent in trade and the Ministry of Agriculture, which is afraid with agricultural imports?
3. What position will Poland present at the European Union Council on Agriculture on 23 January 2024?
4. What import restrictions would the Polish government like to include in the presently negotiated regulation?
5. Does your ministry or government request that Poland be excluded from the regulation due to the crisis on the Polish agricultural marketplace caused by the mass import of agri-food products?
6. Is the Polish government building a coalition of countries in the EU that could block the EU-Ukraine trade liberalisation regulation?
7. May I ask you to present the negotiations with the Ukrainian side? What is the legal position of these negotiations, since the Common Trade Policy is an exclusive competence of the EU and as countries we have very limited tools for conducting a stand-alone trade policy and negotiated conclusions do not request to coincide with the EU position?
8. Is the Minister in favour of maintaining a unilateral national embargo on imports of wheat, rape, sunflower, maize on the basis of a regulation issued on 15 September 2023 by the Minister of improvement and Technology on the ban on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, despite the infringement of EU law on the Common Trade Policy in this area? Are you discussing this with the Minister of improvement and Technology?
9. Will the Minister, in accordance with the electoral promise from the parliamentary run of 2023, extend the embargo to Ukrainian agri-food articles for further goods?
10. The head of trade Dombrovskis warned Warsaw in December to abolish the embargo, otherwise it would be threatened with legal action, besides in the “infringement procedure” mode, does the Minister have any cognition of this subject?
11. Does Ukraine intend to apply the rule of reciprocity in trade with the Union and suspend tariff and non-tariff restrictions which, despite the unilateral beginning of the Union marketplace on the Ukrainian side, proceed to apply without any change?
After the press conference, Anna Bryłka and Mr Mulawa succeeded with a parliamentary intervention at the Ministry of Agriculture in connection with the position presented by the Confederation.
