EC reinstates import quotas for Ukrainian honey as well as sugar and eggs

MOSCOW. Aug 20 (Interfax) - The European Commission on Tuesday imposed quotas on imports of Ukrainian honey because supplies of this product to the European market have exceeded quota-free volumes, Ukrainian media reported, citing an EC press release.

Imports of Ukrainian honey will from August 21 until June 5, 2025 be subject to tariff rate quotas from the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) that has been in effect since 2016.

The EC recalled that the duty-free trade regime with Ukraine in place since June 6, 2024 included an "emergency brake" for seven agricultural products to be automatically triggered if import volumes reach the average yearly imports recorded between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2023.

For honey, the average is 44,418 tonnes. Since this volume has already been exceeded, the EC has 14 days to introduce a tariff quota.

At the same time, from January 1, 2025 to June 5, 2025, a new tariff quota will be introduced, corresponding to 5/12 of the threshold to activate the emergency brake. For honey, the new quota will be 18,507 tonnes.

The EC said imports of Ukrainian honey into the EU over the past five years had been fairly stable, averaging at about 49,000 tonnes per year.

The European Commission has already imposed quotas on imports of Ukrainian eggs and sugar into the European Union from July 2, 2024 because imports of these products have exceeded quota-free volumes.

The EU completely liberalized trade with Ukraine in June 2022 with the introduction of Autonomous Trade Measures, temporarily suspending import duties, quotas and other protective trade measures for imports from the country.

These measures were later extended. However, many EU countries saw massive protests by farmers this year sparked in large part by duty-free imports of agricultural products from Ukraine.

In light of this, when approving the latest extension of duty-free trade with Ukraine until June 5, 2025 in the spring, the EU included an "emergency brake" for imports of particularly sensitive food products from Ukraine, specifically sugar, eggs, poultry, oats, corn, groats and honey. This emergency brake triggers restrictive measures if imports of these products in 2024 exceed the average quantities imported in the second half of 2021 and in the course of 2022 and 2023. Similar measures may be triggered in 2025 if imports from Ukraine in the period from January 1 to June 5, 2025 exceed 5/12 of the quota set for 2024.