Polish minister: Ukraine-Poland talks on agricultural trade at 'final stage'
Ukraine and Poland are negotiating a bilateral agreement that would set conditions on trade in some agricultural goods, Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski said on Feb. 15, according to the Wprost magazine.
On a technical level, the talks are at the final stage, and quota levels for some agricultural goods coming from Ukraine to Poland could be agreed upon at the end of March, Siekierski said.
The minister's statement comes amid an increasingly tense situation between the two countries. Polish farmers launched a new blockade at the Ukraine border in February, protesting the influx of cheap Ukrainian goods to the EU.
"We are negotiating a bilateral agreement with Ukraine to establish certain principles for this period, which would determine the size of quotas for certain goods that can enter the Polish market so as not to affect the stability of certain markets," Siekierski said after meeting farmers' representatives earlier on Feb. 15.
"Ukraine is not doing this intentionally, but we know that an excessive influx of goods will disrupt the market. We want to introduce certain safeguards so that Ukraine can continue to export."
During the meeting with Siekierski, Polish farmers also demanded the withdrawal from the Green Deal, which includes a plan to halve pesticide use, lower fertilizer use, and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
According to the Polish minister, the talks on agricultural goods from Ukraine are ongoing also on the European level.
