V4 Farmers Call on Brussels to Reintroduce Duties on Ukrainian Farm Commodities

Bratislava, April 25 (TASR) - Imports of cheap Ukrainian grain are causing significant problems for farmers from the Visegrad Four (V4) countries (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary), and the only effective solution to the difficult situation is to reintroduce import duties and quotas on Ukrainian farm commodities, representatives of farm and food self-governments of the V4 countries concurred at their joint meeting in Brno in the Czech Republic on Tuesday. Matej Korpas of the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber's (SPPK) press department told TASR that V4 farmers still have millions of tonnes of grain from the old harvest in their barns, which they are unable to sell at reasonable prices. The new harvest is already "at the door", so V4 farm and food organisations, along with representatives of similar organisations from Croatia and Romania, have called on the European Commission to resume import duties and quotas for farm and food products as soon as possible. They don't want such measures to be scrapped before Ukraine becomes an EU member. This should help to deal with the dramatic situation even before the new harvest. "The Union's intention was definitely correct, but practice has gradually put our farmers in a situation with which they can hardly cope. If we really don't want to destroy our farm and food industry, we must adopt fundamental Europe-wide solutions to protect domestic producers. If the Union decides that Ukraine will cover Europe's food needs, it will be necessary to bring Ukraine into the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, with all the consequences and standards that apply here today," said SPPK chairman Emil Macho. ko/df