Ukraine: European Council adopts temporary trade liberalisation with Ukraine
The Council adopted yesterday (24 May 2022) a regulation allowing for temporary trade liberalisation and other trade concessions with regard to certain Ukrainian products. This means that for one year import duties on all Ukrainian exports to the European Union will not be due.
Thanks to these measures the EU will be able to significantly support Ukraine’s economy.
Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine has had a devastating impact on the country’s production capacity, transport infrastructure and access to the Black sea, as well as its wider ability to trade with the rest of the world. The consequences cannot be underestimated both internally, and internationally, in terms of impact on food security.
Today’s decision will apply for a period of one year, and will suspend in particular:
–all those tariffs under Title IV of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine establishing a deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA) that had not yet been liberalised. The suspension covers notably: industrial products subject to duty phase out by the end of 2022, fruits and vegetables subject to the entry-price system, and agricultural products and processed agricultural products subject to tariff-rate quotas,
– the collection of anti-dumping duties on imports originating in Ukraine, and
– the application of the common rules for imports with respect of imports originating in Ukraine.
Today’s decision is conditional upon respect for the principles set out in Article 2 of the DCFTA.
Background and next steps
The Commission tabled its proposal on temporary trade liberalisation supplementing trade concessions applicable to Ukrainian products under the Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, on 27 April 2022.
On 13 May the Council sent a letter to the European Parliament signalling its agreement with the regulation, which was then voted by the EP plenary on 19 May.
Now that the regulation has been adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council, it will be signed and published in the Official Journal, before entering into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.