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AgriMin: Farmers not to be affected if regulations restricting imports of Ukrainian grain are extended.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Petre Daea has announced that he has written a letter to the EU bloc, signed with four other EU member states - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia - requesting the restriction of imports of Ukrainian agricultural products and the extension of the deadline beyond June 5, told Agerpres.
Agriculture ministers from five EU member states - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - have asked the bloc in a letter to amend and extend regulations restricting imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, Polish news agency PAP has recently reported, quoting sources who wished to remain anonymous, Reuters reports.
According to Agriculture Minister Petre Daea, Romania has requested an extension, with June 5 being the date when the period until which imports of grain from Ukraine are suspended expires.
"It is a request generated by the fact that in a while we will begin harvesting, and a large quantity of grain is still in farmers' warehouses. These warehouses must be freed up by using up existing stocks so that we have room to store new crops," the Agriculture Minister told AGERPRES.
He said that the proposed measure is in support of Romanian farmers who will no longer face competition from Ukrainian products on the domestic market.
"Romania's position is that it wants, along with other countries (...) in the vicinity of war, to have the opportunity to use their stocks to make room for new crops to be harvested in a few months' time. (...) We want farmers not to be affected by extending this deadline, which means stopping the import of cereals and preventing them from competing with our products," Petre Daea said.
The European Commission adopted on May 2 exceptional and temporary preventive measures on imports of a limited number of products from Ukraine, under the exceptional guarantee of the autonomous trade measures regulation. The measures entered into force on May 2 and will remain in force until June 5, 2023.
These measures are necessary in view of the exceptional circumstances of the serious logistical bottlenecks faced by five EU member states. The measures cover only four agricultural products - wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds - originating in Ukraine.
The measures adopted aim to ease logistical bottlenecks involving these products in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
During this period, wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds originating in Ukraine can continue to circulate freely in all member states of the European Union except the five countries mentioned in the first line.
The European Commission has announced that it is ready to re-impose preventive measures after the expiry of the current Regulation on autonomous trade measures on June 5, 2023, as long as the exceptional situation continues.
