The agriculture ministers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia signed a letter on Ukrainian agricultural exports to European Commission Executive Vice President and EU Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis and EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, the Bulgarian Agriculture and Food Ministry said here on Monday.
The letter states that because of increased imports from Ukraine, producers in frontline Member States continue to face difficulties in marketing their products on their traditional export markets, where they are being replaced by cheap Ukrainian agricultural products, the letter states. The five countries detail the problem of losing farmers' markets.
“We believe it is necessary for the Commission to introduce such measures that protect the markets of the frontline Member States and, at the same time, give them the opportunity to exploit their export potential,” it adds.
The five countries propose as a possible solution the introduction of tariff quotas for the most sensitive agricultural products in the framework of the negotiations on the extension of the regulation on the Autonomous Trade Measures.
For those products where it is not possible to reintroduce tariff quotas, a different solution should be found to address the problem, the letter states.