European Commission re-imposes quotas on Ukrainian oats supplies

MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - The European Commission has imposed quotas on Ukrainian oats imported to Europe from June 19 until June 5, 2025 due to an excess of quota-free supplies to the European market, the Ukrainian media said citing the commission's statement.

"As of June 19 and until 5 June 2025, Ukrainian oats imported into the EU will take place within the tariff quota from the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) in place since 2016 between the two parties. The automatic reintroduction of this tariff quota is a result of the revised Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs) in place since 6 June 2024," the statement said.

The provision regarding sensitive agricultural products involves an emergency restriction for certain goods including oats, triggered automatically if imports reach the annual average amount registered between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2023, it said.

For oats, such average amount stands at 2,440 tonnes.

This amount has been exceeded since early 2024, the most favored nations duties will remain in place through the year-end. The quota will be re-introduced from January 1, 2025.

For Ukrainian oats, the quota is 4,000 tonnes.

Ukraine's exports to third countries were at just over 7,000 tonnes of oats in 2022, and 11,170 tonnes from July 2023 to May 2024.

The non-EU importers include India, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and Vietnam, among others.

It was reported that the Council of the EU approved on May 13 an extension of temporary trade-liberalization measures for Ukraine by another year, until June 5, 2025. At the same time, provided for an emergency braking mechanism for highly sensitive agricultural products such as sugar, eggs, poultry, oats, maize, honey, grains, should these imports in 2024 exceed their average recorded in the second half of 2021 and during 2022-2023. Same emergency brakes can apply in 2025 if Ukraine's exports exceed 5/12 of the 2024 quota between January 1 and June 5, 2025.

Article 4 (7) of the EU regulations on autonomous trade measures for Ukrainian products allows Ukraine to export 57,101 tonnes of poultry, 9,662 tonnes of eggs, 109,439 tonnes of sugar, 18,507 tonnes of honey, 4,648,000 tonnes of corn, 1,017 tonnes of oats, 8,603 tonnes of grains between June 6, 2024 and June 5, 2025.