Our organisations acknowledge the revision of Article 29 of the EU–Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) and welcome its aim to provide greater certainty and a more stable trading framework for both parties.
We also recognise that efforts have been made to address the risks faced by European producers and industries. However, the concessions in many sensitive sectors are significant. The increase in quotas for ethyl alcohol (+25%), poultry (+33%), common wheat (+30%), barley (+29%), maize (+54%), eggs (+200%), and especially for sugar (+398%) and honey (+483%) will pose significant challenges, in particular as they are in addition to past or planned trade concessions, notably with Mercosur.
We welcome the principle of a reinforced general safeguard clause that can be triggered in the event of market disruption in a Member State but remain doubtful about its practical effectiveness due to the lack of automaticity and clear criteria for its triggering. We call for the implementation of a robust and automatic system for monitoring imports of the most sensitive products.
The planned alignment of Ukrainian production standards, in particular on animal welfare and on plant protection products use, with EU rules by 2028 is a progress but no guarantees have been provided regarding its genuine implementation. We thus call for controls on the ground and for strict traceability controls by the European Commission.
We remain committed to continuing dialogue with the Commission to ensure that these issues are addressed and that guarantees are provided to European producers and manufacturers.
Fonte: Copa Cogeca
