The decision to end special trade arrangements allowing most Ukrainian goods duty-free access to the EU was driven by Poland’s campaign to protect EU farmers.
The European Commission’s transitional measure splits annual duty-free quotas into 12 monthly limits to reduce imports during ongoing trade talks, impacting maize, sugar, honey, and poultry most severely.
Maize quotas will drop from 4.7 million tons to 650,000 tons annually, poultry from 57,100 to 40,000 tons, and sugar from 109,000 to 40,700 tons, according to FT.
Ukraine’s government estimates a return to prewar trade terms will cut its revenues by €3.5 billion ($3.9 billion) annually.
The EU’s free trade agreement with Ukraine was supplemented by a 2022 duty-free regime, set to expire June 6, which the EU plans to replace with transitional measures while updating the broader trade deal.
But diplomats said that this transitional proposal, recently sent to EU member states, would drastically reduce duty-free quotas on agricultural products–a lifeline for Ukrainian farmers and the budget.
First introduced in 2022, the duty-free regime applied to cheap Ukrainian poultry, wheat, and sugar, much of which passed through EU countries on their way to Africa and Asia. But farmers and politicians in Poland, France, and elsewhere soon blamed Ukrainian exports for lower domestic prices.
According to the FT, the issue became dominant in Polish politics, and successive governments imposed unilateral bans on Ukrainian grain imports in violation of EU rules.
Ahead of Poland’s presidential elections, Warsaw urged the Commission to delay the highly unpopular trade talks with Kyiv to weaken nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki.
A European Commission representative confirmed that the post-war arrangements would not be renewed as it works to revise the EU-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
“The Commission is also looking into possible transitional measures in case the negotiations are not finalised and applied by June 6,” the spokesperson added.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, called the move a “really bad signal for Ukraine,” noting “it will take at least until October to find a solution.”
On May 14, his committee will ask European Commission officials why the promised trade talks have "stalled" given that the June deadline has been "known for a long time."
“The situation is really not acceptable,” Lange said.
Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, trade representative of Ukraine’s Federation of Employers, labeled the situation a “huge step back” and a “lack of understanding,” stressing the need for predictable trade rules.
“We don’t know yet what the rules would be and that is not acceptable,” said Bno-Airiian. “The business is specific — poultry and sugar is sold fresh . . . you will be out of the market.”
In late 2024, Poland’s poultry association demanded cutting Ukraine’s poultry quota from 137,000 to 90,000 tons post-June 2025, and Polish cement producers sought protection from Ukrainian cement imports.
On April 3, the Trump administration added Ukraine to a list of countries facing a new 10% import tariff.