EU to levy tariffs on Russian grain imports Report by Financial Times

The EU is preparing to levy tariffs on grain imports from Russia and Belarus to placate farmers and some member states, the first restriction on food products since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a Financial Times report.

Brussels has long resisted pressure from Poland and the Baltic states to restrict Russian and Belarusian imports, arguing that such a move could disrupt global food markets and hurt developing nations.

But according to people familiar with the plans, the European Commission is in the coming days expected to impose a €95-per-tonne duty on cereals from Russia and Belarus. That would increase prices by at least 50 per cent, the people said, eradicating demand. Tariffs of 50 per cent would also be placed on oil seeds and derived products.

EU imports from Russia of the affected produce — cereals, oil seeds and their derivatives — reached a record of 4mn tonnes in 2023, 1 per cent of overall EU consumption.

The reported move comes as farmers across the EU call for changes to restrictions placed on them by the bloc's Green Deal plan to tackle climate change and for the re-imposition of customs duties on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine that were waived after Russia's invasion in 2022.

Farmers from neighboring Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, all of which are EU members, say the move undercuts their prices. Ukraine is not part of the 27-member EU.

Like much of Europe, Poland has also been gripped by protests in recent weeks as farmers demonstrate against EU environmental regulations.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has also called for an EU ban on Russian and Belarusian agricultural product imports.