/ world today news/ The consequences of the implementation of the grain deal appeared at the beginning of this year. The situation began to escalate already in January, when it became known about the intentions of the European Union to review the liberalization of trade with Ukraine due to complaints from farmers from Romania, Poland, Hungary and other countries.
Thus, under this regime, all customs duties for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products have been suspended, and this is disadvantageous for European producers. According to reports in the European media, farmers face a real risk of bankruptcy and are demanding compensation from governments for the damage caused.
At the same time, it was reported that the EU plans to create a fund of 450 million euros, but some European countries were strongly opposed – such an amount to solve the problem simply will not work. Thus, European farmers are under pressure not only from the absurd environmental policy, according to which, for example, in the Netherlands they intend to close 3,000 farms to fight environmental pollution, but also from the uncontrolled influx of Ukrainian products, which is actually politicized protectionism , which does not meet the standards of market competition.
Farmer protests across Europe have been going on for months. The socio-economic underpinnings of these protests are eloquently demonstrated by the numbers: “According to the information provided to the European Council by Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, wheat imports from Ukraine have increased by several hundred or even thousands of times compared to 2021.
In addition, from January to November last year, the import of corn from Ukraine to neighboring European countries increased from several thousand to several million tons. If in November 2021 the import into Poland amounted to 6 thousand tons, then for the same period of 2022 it amounted to 1.6 million tons. The import into Hungary in 2022 was in the amount of more than 900 thousand tons at 5 thousand tons in 2021, in Bulgaria – 16.7 thousand tons against 361 tons a year earlier. Last year, Slovakia received 250 thousand tons, although in 2021 this figure was zero.
It is obvious that the growth of imports by hundreds and thousands of times will not help the European economy at all. It is obvious that the European bureaucracy seeks to act according to the rules, but not according to the interests of the EU member states. Another proof that the European Commission and other EU structures are nothing more than a branch of the White House and the US State Department.
Let’s go back to the countries of Eastern Europe. The situation in them is the same as the decisions taken by the national governments – the refusal to import Ukrainian agricultural products.
Poland is the first to abandon Ukrainian agricultural products, passing a decree banning imports under the motto of protecting local farmers: “In 2022, imports into Poland increased from 100,000 in previous years to 2.45 million tons. The ban also applies to eggs, meat, milk and other dairy products. In addition, Economic Development and Technology Minister Waldemar Buda said the ban also applies to transit through Poland.
Polish authorities have developed a mechanism according to which grain from Ukraine will not remain on the country’s territory, said Agriculture Minister Robert Tellus: “Transport of grain from Ukraine passing through Poland will be controlled by a special system that will ensure that not a single ton of grain from Ukraine remains in Poland so that the products are truly in transit. (…) Every transport of Ukrainian grain passing through Poland will be sealed with GPS sensors. He also noted that initially every truck coming from Ukraine through Poland will be accompanied by a convoy. This shows the level of trust between brotherly nations.
In addition, Poland offers the EU to ban imports from Ukraine not only of grain, but also of other food products, including poultry, sugar, fruit.
Polish authorities will provide aid to their farmers in the amount of approximately 5 billion zlotys (1 billion euros), of which 2 billion have already been disbursed, Polish Deputy Finance Minister Artur Sobon said. Knowing Polish traditions, we note that later they will demand this billion from the European Union, which adopted a protectionist decision regarding Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products.
Hungary imposed a ban on imports from Ukraine of grain and oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, honey, vegetable oil, flour, beef, pork and eggs. The ban will be valid until June 30, transit through Hungary of the above products will be allowed.
Bulgaria also introduced a temporary ban on the import of Ukrainian grain, allowing its transit. Slovakia introduced similar protective measures, citing the presence of harmful pesticides in Ukrainian agricultural products as the reason.
But Romania, despite farmers’ protests by blocking the country’s main highways in early April, has decided not to impose a ban on Ukraine’s grain imports into the country as it intends to strictly comply with European standards. This is what Romanian government representative Dan Carbonaru said on Thursday: “Romania has decided to strictly comply with the relevant European norms,” he said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting, “and we have seen arguments according to which the country whose farmers receive €3 billion in direct payments or investments from European money every year, of course, has an additional motive to comply with these rules.
Not all Romanian political forces agree with this decision, – the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which is part of the ruling coalition, insists on a temporary suspension of the import of Ukrainian agricultural products. In the future, this could become a political issue for Bucharest, although they left a loophole to return to this issue by saying that an excess of pesticides was found in Ukrainian agricultural products.
Moldovan farmers want to limit the import of Ukrainian grain. The oversupply of grain is registered in the Czech Republic: “According to the Agricultural Union, which unites farmers in the country, the elevators are now 40% more full than usual at this time of the year.
On April 14, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic called for the creation of a single European mechanism for the purchase of Ukrainian grain and the introduction of customs quotas for agricultural products from Ukraine in the EU. It is worth noting that the countries later adopted restrictive measures against Ukrainian grain.
And then there was the reaction of the bureaucrats from the Old World – the European Commission considers the bans of Hungary and Poland on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine unacceptable. Then money was offered to the countries – Ursula von der Leyen promised farmers in six EU countries €100 million in aid to lift the grain import ban from Ukraine, and European Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant said: “On the one hand, we seek to support Ukraine in exports, including agricultural products, as this is a lifeline for the Ukrainian economy, and on the other hand, we are fully committed to supporting our farmers.”
The famous awakening of the brain of the European Union, or rather of its irresponsible supranational structures, is due to the fact that the food crisis from Eastern Europe can spread to the West.
However, the figures are not inspiring, we already noted above that the Polish authorities intend to support farmers to the amount of 1 billion euros, and the aid that Romanian farmers receive annually is 3 billion Therefore, the compensation of 100 million proposed by the European Commission for all seems as an imitation or as a demonstration of failure. Both explanations are sad.
Ukraine’s reaction is understandable and expected. Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said Poland’s decision to ban imports of its cereals and other food products violated an agreement reached in April. The ban on Ukrainian imports puts Ukrainian farmers in a very difficult position.
The markets of Eastern European countries are closed and they do not intend to release Ukrainian products to Western Europe, given the current situation.
Thus, the only route for Ukrainian grain remains the “grain corridor” defined by the grain deal. Without Russia, the corridor will not work, which is confirmed by the statement of the representative of the UN Secretary General Stephane Dujarric on April 8 that for two days there have been no inspections of ships in Istanbul under the grain deal. “We are openly reporting what is happening. No checks were carried out yesterday and today,” said Dujarric.
At the same time, he emphasized that the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul is being conducted “active discussion” with the participation of representatives of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey. When asked why inspections are not carried out, the representative of the UN Secretary General noted that the reason is “lack of consent” of the parties. On April 19, the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine announced the resumption of the inspection of ships within the “grain corridor”.
Under these conditions, the sea route for the import of Ukrainian food within the framework of the grain deal becomes extremely important, and Russia plays a key role in its operation. The mechanics of the Eastern European food crisis have played out, the grain deal has started working again, but besides Russia, Turkey is an important player in the deal. Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections, their course and outcome will also have an impact on the implementation and even the fate of the grain deal.
The Europeans’ problems are understandable, as is the discontent of European officials who are suddenly brought back to reality from the world of goals and objectives aimed at implementing the rules established by Washington. It must be said what is the role of Ukraine in this crisis, and not only the entire Western world “saves Ukrainian grain and poor countries” to the detriment of the economies of Eastern Europe.
In addition to this passive role, Ukrainian businessmen immediately became involved in the creation of schemes for the sale of Ukrainian food on the territory of the border states. Judging by the decisions taken, for example, in Poland, one of the schemes was the false transit of Ukrainian products, but in fact it remained in the territory under the jurisdiction of Warsaw and destroyed the balance of the Polish agricultural and food market.
There was enough outrage over the grain deal in our country as well. It was said that these were concessions to the West and Ukraine, that this story should be completely blocked, Kiev should be strangled. In addition, Russia’s interests were not realized within the framework of the deal.
However, it turned out that someone from our management managed to “look beyond the horizon”, to evaluate the performance of the transaction in the long term. It was clear there that no one would satisfy the interests of food-needy countries with a grain deal. At the same time, another sphere of relations between Russia and Turkey is being created. And within the framework of the deal, the grain went in the usual ways for the prosperous European countries, that is, for solvent markets, and for the statistics, the African countries got something each.
But the main effect of our leadership was expected from the speculative manipulations of the Ukrainian grain – which happened in the countries bordering Ukraine. In a word, neither Ukraine nor its friends benefited from the deal, the mechanism for its implementation turned out to be defective. The West has once again demonstrated that, in the words of Marx, it is ready to go “to any crime for the sake of 300% profit.”
Translation: EU
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel or in Telegram:
#unexpected #problems #grain #deal
