Source: European Parliament
The Commission is closely monitoring the situation regarding the import of fertilisers into the EU from Russia and Belarus.
While reflecting on possible new measures, upholding food security remains among EU’s primary consideration. Any measure should contribute to preserve a competitive EU fertilisers industry, reduce dependencies while also ensuring that EU farmers have access to ample and diverse sources of fertilisers.
It is worth mentioning that some fertilisers types, albeit not urea or nitrogen fertilisers, are also subject to restrictions under EU sanctions, i.e. a quota on imports of potash fertilisers from Russia[1] and a ban on Belarus[2].
Where there is unfair competition stemming from imports, the EU uses trade defence instruments to restore fair competition. There are anti-dumping measures in place on imports of mixtures of urea and ammonium nitrate from, inter alia, Russia[3] which are currently subject to an expiry review.
There are also measures in place on ammonium nitrate from Russia. Where measures are no longer effective, they may be reviewed.
The trade defence process is normally driven by complaints or requests from industry giving evidence of unfairly dumped or subsidised imports of products or showing that there are changes of a lasting nature which require a change to existing measures. EU industry should contact the complaints office of Directorate-General for Trade for advice.
- [1] Article 3i of Council Regulation 833/2014; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02014R0833-20241217
- [2] Article 1i of Council Regulation 765/2006; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02006R0765-20241216
- [3] Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1688 of 8 October 2019; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019R1688