The European Union has completed a review of the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), with a view to Ukraine’s accession talks, while taking precautions to safeguard European farmers.
The new and updated agreement aims at being “balanced, fair and realistic”, as Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič said, who guaranteed that “It also safeguards the interests of EU farmers.”
In more detail, it requires Ukraine to gradually align with EU production standards in agriculture, with Kyiv expected to release yearly reports on its progress in areas such as animal welfare, pesticides, and veterinary medicines.
As an extra measure for EU farmers, the updated agreement includes a safeguard mechanism that can be activated if one or more member states believe there is a possible market distortion. This measure seemed necessary after several EU countries expressed concerns about Ukrainian agricultural imports, particularly wheat, which may alter local production.
Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hanse summed up the EU’s position by stating that “when negotiating a revised deal for our trade relations with Ukraine, our objectives were clear: keep standing with Ukraine, further align our production standards in view of their accession into the EU, and also have an efficient safeguard mechanism in place to protect our sensitive sectors.”
Also, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made clear the two main points of the new agreement when she said that the EU is “building bridges of resilience and economic solidarity in the face of Russia’s unjustified war of aggression. At the same time, we continue to safeguard the interests of our farmers.”
Adoption of the updated agreement is pending endorsement by the European Council, before it can be fully ratified and enter into force.
