Romania hesitates to suspend tariff-free grain imports from Ukraine

Unlike other countries in the region, Romania hesitates to ban the tariff-free imports of grains and other food products from Ukraine because the Government fears another infringement from the European Commission (EC).

The EC already said such steps taken independently by member countries are "not acceptable."

Such steps should be legal, "not driven by the petty politics motivations," Romanian minister of Agriculture Petre Daea said, speaking for Digi24.

Poland, Hungary over the April 15-16 weekend and Slovakia on April 17 disregarded Brussel's comments and, to protect their farmers, they already suspended the waiver on custom restrictions previously decided by the European Union for grain and other food products from Ukraine. Bulgaria plans a similar step.

The governments in all these countries face massive protests from farmers, who can't sell or export their crops at decent prices. The grain from Ukraine doesn't meet, for instance, the EU's tight requirements for the use of pesticides that push up the cost in member states.

The waiver on the custom restrictions and tariffs, aimed to help Ukraine send its crops to its traditional customers resulted in a grain glut in the neighbouring markets of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria where the farmers can hardly sell or export their own crops.

The five countries and the Czech Republic met last week to prepare a coordinated position on this matter. The six countries also sent to the European Commission a request for measures aimed at protecting the internal [meaning EU] markets.

"We proposed a set of measures aimed at significantly reducing the imbalances created in the market by the massive imports of Ukrainian cereals," Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciuca stated.

Officials of Ukraine are negotiating the re-opening of grain exports with Poland on April 17 and will discuss the same topic with Romania on April 19.

(Photo: Denys Kovtun/ Dreamstime)