“Bulgaria appealed to the European Commission with a request to suspend the import of Ukrainian eggs. In this way, the country’s authorities met the farmers, who threaten the bankruptcy of local factories due to the inability to compete with the previously cheap products from Ukraine. BTA writes about it. The initiative was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Food of Bulgaria Giorgi Takhov at the meeting of the EU Council on Agriculture and Fisheries […]”, — write: businessua.com.ua
Bulgaria appealed to the European Commission with a request to suspend the import of Ukrainian eggs. In this way, the country’s authorities met the threatening farmers bankruptcy of local factories due to the inability to compete with previously cheap products from Ukraine.
BTA writes about it. The initiative was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Food of Bulgaria Giorgi Takhov at the meeting of the EU Council on Agriculture and Fisheries in Brussels.
He openly called low prices for Ukrainian eggs a problem. According to Takhov, due to the price difference with Bulgarian products, in the first half of 2024, 2,618 tons of eggs from Ukraine were imported into the country, which is five times more than in the same period of 2023.
Farmers in Bulgaria complained that they could not cope with competition in the form of Ukrainian products. Takhov said that the country’s authorities agree with the farmers’ claims and see the threat of “imbalances in the domestic market”.
At the same time, it should be taken into account that back in July, the EU returned customs duties on key products of Ukrainian import, including eggs. The mechanism of “emergency braking” was put into effect, because the export of eggs from Ukraine to the EU at that time exceeded the established quotas.
Takhov emphasized that the introduction of tariffs allegedly failed to settle the situation. Therefore, the Bulgarian minister believes that without the active intervention of the European Commission and the introduction of tougher measures, “the situation may worsen significantly.”
According to him, Bulgaria supports Ukraine in its struggle for independence, but cannot allow it to lead to the “bankruptcy of local farmers and poultry farms.” “We are advocating strong support for the people of Ukraine, but this should not be at the cost of bankruptcy and violation of the rights of our farmers,” said Takhov.
We will remind you that the EU agreed to cancel all tariffs and quotas on the import of Ukrainian food products as early as June 2022, which, among other things, fully complies with the Agreement on a free trade zone with Ukraine. However, within a few months, farmers in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and other neighboring countries complained that the surplus of Ukrainian imports was allegedly pushing them out of the market.
After that, these countries unilaterally imposed an embargo on many goods, allowing their import only for further transit, which is a violation of EU legislation. Despite this, the EU member states at the beginning of 2024 extended the free trade regime for Ukraine until 2025.
But at the same time, they introduced restrictions – to appease farmers. So, if the volume of imported products exceeds the average figure in 2022 and 2023, the block has the right to impose duties on such Ukrainian products.
bird;
eggs;
sugar;
oat;
corn;
honey;
cereals (grain kernels).
Regarding these goods, the EU can use the mentioned “emergency braking” mechanism, which provides for the automatic refund of customs duties. The measure is applied as soon as the volume of product exports reaches the average annual volume recorded from July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023.
The source