Slovakia suspends imports of Ukrainian agricultural products

Noviny reported the information.

The decision is reportedly temporary. An interagency working group will meet on this issue.

The decision to temporarily ban the import of Ukrainian agricultural products was made due to the fact that Slovak farmers cannot compete with cheap Ukrainian grain on the market. The Ministry of Agricultural Policy of the country warned that it had exhausted all methods of legal regulation of imports from Ukraine while maintaining transit. According to their plans, Ukrainian grain should go through the country to other countries, but it ends up in EU warehouses and destabilizes the market.

"In the future, stricter measures should be introduced at the government level to regulate imports of goods from Ukraine," the ministry emphasized.

• On March 29, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki said that Poland promised to introduce rules that would limit the inflow of Ukrainian grain to the country, explaining that it could destabilize the import market. Later, Warsaw officially approved a ban on the import of Ukrainian grain and other food products to Poland. The government emphasized that this decision does not change the country's position on support and friendship with Ukraine.

• In Romania, farmers are demanding a ban on grain imports and transit from Ukraine, threatening a nationwide protest.

• On April 16, media reported that Bulgaria was also considering refusing to import Ukrainian grain, after Hungary and Poland had already made this decision. On the same day, a spokesman for the European Commission said that unilateral actions by EU member states on trade were unacceptable.

• Also on April 16, Ukraine's Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solskyi held an online meeting with Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy, who assured him that Hungary would not stop the transit of Ukrainian grain.