Hungary to Extend Ban on Ukrainian Grain Imports Unless Duties Reintroduced

BUDAPEST (Sputnik) - Hungary will extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products at the national level if Brussels does not exclude grain and oilseed products from the list of products subject to duty-free imports to the European Union, Hungarian Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy said.

"In the coming days, a decree on the extension of the autonomous trade liberalization measure will pass ... If the issue of grains and oilseeds is not resolved in the decree, the Hungarian government will still leave the border closed at the national level and will not let Ukrainian agricultural products into Hungary because we owe so much to the Hungarian farming community," the minister said in a video message on Tuesday aired by Hungarian broadcaster M1.

He added that Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi attended a meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council on Tuesday and said that 17 million tonnes of grain had been exported from Ukraine through the Black Sea ports.

Nagy called in such a case for a return to Ukraine's traditional agricultural products markets in the Middle East in Asia and Africa and for banning duty-free import of Ukrainian goods to the EU.

The Hungarian minister also welcomed the adoption by the Council of simplified production rules for European producers of agricultural products and the reduction of the bureaucratic burden on them.

Earlier in March, the European Parliament and the European Council reached an agreement to extend the temporary suspension of duties on exports of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU until June 5, 2025.

In March 2023, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia asked the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to address the crisis caused by the inflow of Ukrainian grain, arguing that cheap imports harm local producers. In May, the European Commission banned the sale of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seed in the said five countries until June 5, while the ban was later extended to September 15.

The European Commission in September 2023 decided against extending the ban. Following the decision, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland announced that they were extending the ban unilaterally. In particular, Hungary extended the ban at the national level, and the list of products banned for import included 24 products.