Ukraine names conditions for withdrawal of WTO claim against Poland, Hungary and Slovakia

Ukraine may withdraw its claim from the WTO if Poland, Hungary and Slovakia guarantee that they will not apply restrictive measures to Ukrainian goods in the future. This will allow Ukraine to declare that the dispute has been resolved.

Source: Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine, on air during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Quote: "Only when we receive these guarantees will we formally announce to the whole world that this dispute is over."

Details: He recalled that Ukraine had warned them that the case would end in a lawsuit.

At the same time, all the comments that Ukraine received were "evasive, always jumping to another topic, but in fact, the issue remains open".

Quote: "Neither Poland, nor Hungary, nor Slovakia had the right to impose unilateral restrictions either in April or now. We warned about a potential lawsuit before April and, accordingly, have now done what we have been warning about from the very beginning in the event of new restrictions."

More details: Kahcka said that it is now very important that the Polish authorities, other states and the European Union guarantee that there will be no such restrictions in the future.

"They are illegal and inadequate. No matter how much the Polish counterparts defend them, we will never agree that they are acceptable," Kachka also said.

It is also crucial for Ukraine to launch a procedure for the approval and verification of the mechanism for controlling the export of Ukrainian agricultural products proposed by the European Commission.

"This position has been agreed upon by the European Union and other EU member states, so the Ukrainian government considers it [the mechanism – ed.] acceptable," Kachka added.

Kachka noted that the proposed export control procedure for Ukrainian grain will operate in the format of licences issued by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine. They will apply exclusively to direct exports of four commodities – wheat, rapeseed, maize and sunflower – to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

He also expressed his belief that the WTO claims were not a mistake on Ukraine's part.

Quote: "As we can see from the reaction of our partners, filing a claim with the WTO is an absolutely appropriate and correct step, as it has outlined the nature of our indignation. It is not so much about the damage to the grain market – Poland has never been an important grain market for us – as it is about the very fact of imposing such national restrictions."

Background:

• Ukraine has unlimited transit through certain neighbouring countries, despite the export ban from these states. Apart from that, there are no export restrictions to other EU member states or third countries, such as China, Egypt or Türkiye.
• On 19 September, Ukraine presented the control system of grain exports to the European Union to the working group on exporting Ukrainian agricultural products.
• It was possible to settle the issue with the Romanian and Bulgarian parties due to consultations. In particular, bilateral mechanisms were worked out.
• The preliminary talks about accepting/rejecting the proposed scheme of work with the other three states that banned the export of Ukrainian agricultural products were also started.
• In particular, the mechanism for controlling the export of Ukrainian grain to the front-line countries was approved during the negotiations of the agricultural ministers of Ukraine and Poland, Mykola Solskyi and Robert Telus, on 27 September. The Polish side called it constructive.
• On 28 September, a joint meeting of Ukraine and five neighbouring states with the European Commission will be held, where the next steps for cooperation will be discussed.
• Earlier, the European Commission announced that it will not extend restrictions on importing agricultural products from Ukraine to five neighbouring EU countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) with some conditions that will avoid another sharp increase in supplies.
• These five Eastern European countries, the EU members, claimed that Ukrainian agricultural products settle in their territory and cause damage to their agricultural sector under the conditions of their duty-free import into the EU.
• Restrictions were introduced on 2 May. They concerned the import of wheat, rapeseed, sunflower and corn.
• After the lifting of restrictions, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia introduced unilateral bans, and Bulgaria thought about quotas for Ukrainian sunflower imports. Poland has expanded the list of prohibited products including rapeseed cake and meal, corn bran, wheat flour and derivative products. Hungary brought this list to 24 commodity positions.
• Ukraine filed a lawsuit at the WTO, accusing Poland, Hungary and Slovakia of discriminating against its agricultural products.

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