Kyiv will today sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over their ban of agricultural products from Ukraine, the country’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka has announced.
The bans by the three Central European countries are intended to protect their farmers from a surge in exports from grain superpower Ukraine, following Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.
It is important to prove that these actions are legally wrong. And that’s why we will start start legal proceedings tomorrow
Kachka said Sunday evening, adding Kyiv was also preparing to retaliate against fruit and vegetable exports.
The three countries are rebelling against the European Commission, which last Friday decided to allow Ukrainian grain sales across the EU. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia said they would impose their own bans on Ukrainian grain.
In our eyes these measures of Hungary and Poland is a statement of total distrust to the European Commission,
said Kachka. He argued that Poland’s, Hungary’s and Slovakia’s open defiance against Brussels was not just an internal matter for the EU.
For many years, it’s been the European Commission who is the trade negotiator and trade policy institution for the whole EU. And we used to work on on this basis. The systemic approach of Budapest and Warsaw of ignoring the position of the EU institutions in trade policy, I think that will be a problem for the EU in general,
Kachka said, adding that Kyiv will sue the countries at the World Trade Organization. “I think that all the world should see how member states in the EU behave towards trade partners and their own Union, because it can influence other states as well,” he said.
While Slovakia simply extended the EU’s previous ban on four types of grain, Poland imposed additional bans on Ukrainian flour and feed over the weekend. Hungary, Kachka said, is going even further and banning an additional 25 products that had not been discussed before.
