Media: Ukrainian farmers brace for billions in losses as EU ends wartime trade relief

Ukraine's agri-food sector is facing a potentially devastating financial hit as the EU prepares to reintroduce pre-war trade restrictions starting in June.

This has been announced by the Euractiv publication in their recent article, citing an obtained draft regulation, according to which Brussels is set to roll back the tariff-free access granted to Ukrainian agricultural exports under the Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs) introduced in 2022.

The European Commission intends to reinstate the tariff rate quotas (TRQs) outlined in the 2017 Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) agreement on June 5.

Since the change will come mid-year, the article highlights that the quotas will be prorated to cover 7/12ths of the annual limits, corresponding to the June–December period. Key Ukrainian exports like poultry, eggs, and maize will fall under these revised caps.

As Euractiv reported in an earlier article, the Commission had aimed to replace the temporary ATMs with a new long-term trade arrangement before June. However, officials have since acknowledged that only "transitional measures" are likely to be in place—falling back on the older system that Ukrainian producers had hoped to avoid.

Ukraine’s agricultural sector has repeatedly warned that reinstating quotas could cause annual losses between €3 billion and €3.5 billion.

“This is a harsh, brutal return to reality for our exporters,” a Ukrainian farming industry source told Euractiv, calling the move “Trump methods in a velvet EU glove.”

The plan has also sparked backlash within the EU’s own farming community. In a joint letter to the Commission, obtained by Euractiv, major European farming groups—including Copa and Cogeca, as well as industry representatives from the poultry, egg, sugar, ethanol, and maize sectors—condemned the proposal. They urged the EU not to implement transitional quotas or adjustments like prorating, arguing such measures “would amount to an unacceptable weakening of the agreement’s protective framework.”

By Nazrin Sadigova