Ukraine files lawsuit against Hungary, Poland and Slovakia

Kyiv sues Hungary, Poland and Slovakia for refusing to lift the ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products. Ukraine is particularly furious at Hungary for extending the list of agricultural goods banned.

The European Commission on Friday lifted the import restrictions on wheat, maize, sunflower and rapeseed introduced on 2 May. In response, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia introduced national bans on agricultural raw materials and foodstuffs from Ukraine, Economx reports.

Bulgaria has not extended the restrictions, Romania is waiting for Kyiv’s proposals on export restrictions.

Ukraine is suing Hungary, Poland and Slovakia at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for refusing to lift the ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products under their national jurisdiction, Ukraine’s deputy trade minister Taras Kachka told Politico.

“In our eyes these measures of Hungary and Poland is a statement of total distrust to the European Commission,”

Kachka said.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia’s open defiance of Brussels is not only an internal EU issue. It also raises the biggest systemic concern: whether international trading partners can trust Brussels to speak for the European Union.

While Slovakia has simply extended the EU’s previous ban on four cereals, Poland imposed a further ban on Ukrainian flour and fodder over the weekend. According to Kachka, Hungary is going even further:

it is banning 25 more products that were previously off limits, including meat.

According to the deputy minister, these arbitrary bans are ridiculous. He believes that Hungary has practically announced that it is blocking all trade with Ukraine, and is completely ignoring the decision of Brussels.

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Agriculture minister: Brussels’ manoeuvring on Ukrainian grain ‘unacceptable’

The decision on Brussels not to prolong the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products in the five bordering member countries “is outrageous and unacceptable”, István Nagy, the minister of agriculture, said in Brussels on Monday.

After taking part in a meeting of EU agriculture ministers, Nagy told Hungarian journalists that the European Commission’s decision not to prolong the import ban had caused “serious problems”, and also raised political questions insofar as EC president Ursula von der Leyen chose to discuss the matter with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rather than the elected leaders of EU member states.

Nagy said the interests of a third country appeared to be more important to the EC than those of EU member states.

The EU, he added, had allowed Ukraine carte-blanche over import controls, which he said was “laughable”.

The ban on the import of Ukrainian grain is a matter of EUR 6 billion for the five EU member states involved, he said. “Brussels refuses to understand this, which is why brave, tough and unilateral national measures had to be taken,” he said, adding that otherwise the countries would be flooded with Ukrainian grain before harvest.

The minister said the import ban must be reinstated, and if any country chose to relax it or request an exception, they were free to do so. The grain can be transported through solidarity corridors to third countries, but it must not end up in European markets, he said.

Nagy said financial support was needed for land transport so that the grain reached sea ports and on to traditional market in Africa. “We warned the commission that if Ukrainian grain does not arrive there, Russian grain may take its place,” he added.