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BRUSSELS (Reuters) – France said on Tuesday it and a group of other EU countries were pushing for more restrictions on imports of food products from Ukraine to prevent destabilization of EU agricultural markets.
EU members are debating how to grant Ukraine another year’s extension of tariff-free access to its markets, while also placating farmers who have grown frustrated over EU environmental rules and cheap imports. Have been protesting against for months.
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French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told reporters ahead of a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels that volatile markets could erode public support for Kiev, which would be in the interests of neither the EU nor Ukrainians.
Nearby, farmers with about 250 tractors blocked the EU district, including Brussels’ main street and the square in front of the European Parliament. Some people dropped beetroot, grass and wooden pallets near the police barricade.
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The European Commission has proposed suspending tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural produce for another year until June 2025, with a new “emergency break” for poultry, eggs and sugar if imports exceed average levels for 2022 and 2023. “The tariff will be imposed with.
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Oats, corn, oats and honey have been added to the list.
Fasnew said wheat should also be included and stressed that the breakeven threshold should be the average for 2021-2023. This would include the year before Russia’s invasion, when Ukrainian exports to the EU were curbed by tariffs and quotas.
Hungarian Minister Istvan Nagy said Budapest would support an extension to Ukraine only with limits on wheat.
David Clarinval, Belgium’s agriculture minister, who holds the EU presidency for six months, said he hoped a solution would be found in the coming days, without specifying what such a solution would involve.
(Additional reporting by Kate Abnett, Writing by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by David Evans)
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