REUTERS
The European Parliament has decided to hold interinstitutional negotiations on granting Ukraine additional trade preferences, having deleted two agricultural tariffs, wheat and processed tomatoes, and one industrial tariff, urea, from the annexes, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
The vote took place as part the EP plenary session in Brussels on Thursday, June 1. The decision was adopted by 475 votes in favor and 102 votes against it.
The speaker on this issue was the deputy from Poland Jaroslaw Walesa, who proposed a compromise having considered different opinions in the European Parliament regarding additional trade preferences for Ukraine.
Read alsoEU aims to approve new quotas for Ukraine before JulyDuring the debates, which took place on Wednesday, May 31, Walesa said that there were very different opinions on the issue, from the left to the right, as well as very extreme ones. Yet, he always tried to help Ukraine, and remembered that protecting the interests of the European farmers and producers was also important. So, in his words, it was not so easy to find a balanced solution.
"Taking all this into consideration, I think we have managed to achieve a balanced outcome in the Committee on International Trade. My report proposes the deletion of two agricultural tariffs, wheat and processed tomatoes, and one industrial tariff, urea, from the annexes," he said.
He also expressed confidence that trilateral interinstitutional negotiations between the European Parliament, the European Council and the country presiding in the EU (Malta) would start in the near future.
As UNIAN reported, the European Commission in September 2016 proposed an increase in quotas for exports of some goods from Ukraine. In particular, corn quotas would grow by 650,000 tonnes, those of wheat by 100,000 tonnes, barley by 350,000 tonnes, cereals and processed grain by 7,800 tonnes, oats by 4,000 tonnes, honey by 3,000 tonnes, grape juice by 500 tonnes, and processed tomatoes by 5,000 tonnes.
At the same time, the Committee of the European Parliament removed tomatoes, barley, and urea from the tariffs list.
The then Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Kutovyi claimed earlier that the economic effect of the European Parliament's decision to increase the annual quotas for duty-free shipments of Ukrainian farm produce to the EU would be estimated at US$196.95 million.