EU Council approves the renewal of the autonomous trade measures for Ukraine
Допомога ЄС
14.05.2024
On May 13, the Council of the European Union approved a 12-month extension of the autonomous trade measures for Ukraine. These measures came into force in June 2022 and will be applied until June 2025. The EU Council decision also provides two mechanisms to protect the EU market, namely
- a strengthened version of the existing safeguard mechanism, which will apply on the basis of regular monitoring;
- a new, automatic safeguard mechanism which will oblige the Commission to reintroduce quotas if imports of poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, maize, groats and honey exceed the arithmetic mean of quantities imported in the second half of 2021, in 2022 and in 2023.
Background
On 31 January 2024, the European Commission proposed to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on all imports from Ukraine and Moldova to the EU for another year. The proposal was presented in the context of Russia’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine and the consequent ongoing impact on Moldova, the resulting need to continue to support Ukraine and Moldova economically, and considering that Ukraine and Moldova were granted EU candidate status in June 2022 and accession negotiations were opened in December 2023.
