Under a new duty-free trade project with the EU, Ukraine risks losing more than €330M.

The Council of the EU has updated the draft agreement that extends duty-free trade with Ukraine. In particular, the demands of Poland and France, supported by Italy, Austria, and Hungary, have been considered, and the base period, which will be considered when determining the volume of supplied Ukrainian agricultural products, has been updated. It is suggested that we focus on 2022 and 2023 and the second half of 2021.

According to EC estimates, Ukraine will lose €86M if the second half of 2021 is also used in the basis of calculations.  The restrictions, which will be based on import estimates for half of 2021 and the full years of 2022 and 2023, were estimated to generate €331M in losses for the Ukrainian budget.

Of course, Ukraine opposed these modifications, which were supported by several EU states, advocating for the opportunity to independently earn money from selling its agricultural products. Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, the Baltic states, and Luxembourg oppose the amendments.