Source: European Parliament
To support the Ukrainian economy following Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU liberalised all imports from Ukraine for which the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine[1] limited trade concessions to tariff-rate quotas, by Regulation (EU) 2022/870[2] of 30 May 2022. The measures were prolonged twice[3] and the current iteration will expire on 5 June 2025.
These measures concern agricultural products and processed agricultural products. Under their last iteration from mid-2024, and in order to protect European farmers from growing import levels, automatic safeguards were introduced to limit duty-free imports for the most sensitive sectors, namely sugar, poultry, eggs, maize, honey, oats and groats.
The Commission estimates that the value of Ukrainian agricultural products and processed agricultural products not subject to duties thanks to the measures[4] was around EUR 2.1 billion in 2023 out of the total of Ukraine’s agricultural exports to the EU, which amounted about EUR 12 billion.
In 2024, the value of Ukrainian duty-free exports of agricultural products and processed agricultural products not subject to duties thanks to the measures is estimated at EUR 1.8 billion, a reduction due to the activation of automatic safeguards.
Specifically for eggs and egg products , the value of Ukrainian duty-free exports to the EU in 2023 and 2024 is estimated at EUR 74 million and EUR 38 million, respectively.
- [1] Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02014A0529%2801%29-20231201
- [2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/870/oj
- [3] Regulation (EU) 2023/1077 of 31 May 2023; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1077/oj and Regulation (EU) 2024/1392 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1392/oj
- [4] Based on Eurostat trade data.