Farmers’ interests must be protected against Ukrainian agricultural products

(Photo: AM)

The Minister reminded that even though the unilateral tariff concession granted by Brussels to Kiev expired on June 5, the European Commission is still in debt with the proposal that would manage the import of Ukrainian agricultural products into the EU in a reassuring and long-term manner. Hungary continues to stand by the principle that only goods that comply with the current EU regulations and traceability rules should be allowed to enter the EU. Ukraine cannot be an exception to this, the Minister indicated. In addition, it is of utmost importance to introduce an automatic regional measure, based on which the member states bordering Ukraine would receive special protection, by establishing separate, proportional quotas. After exceeding these, an automatic import ban should come into force for the given member state against Ukrainian products, he added. István Nagy also spoke about the fact that the EU-Mercosur agreement in its current form does not sufficiently take into account the interests of European agriculture, therefore it needs to be reconsidered. Stronger guarantees should be built into the contract to protect the agricultural interests of the Union. Hungary will continue to protect the interests of farmers and will take decisive action against any initiative from Brussels that endangers the livelihood and competitiveness of agricultural producers, as well as our daily bread, the head of the agricultural ministry underlined.

AM