On Monday, September 18, Ukraine filed claims with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, which banned the import of Ukrainian agricultural products.
“In accordance with the agreement on the rules and procedures for resolving disputes of the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization, Ukraine has submitted demands for consultations with Slovakia, Poland and Hungary within the WTO,” says the message of the First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko, published on the department’s website.
According to her, as a result of the unilateral ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products by three countries, exporters have already suffered and continue to suffer significant losses due to downtime, additional costs and the inability to fulfill foreign economic agreements.
“Ukraine sees in this a violation by three EU countries of their international obligations. The Ukrainian side also believes that unilateral actions of EU member countries in the field of trade are unacceptable,” Sviridenko noted.
Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, in response to Ukraine’s threats to complain to the WTO because of the embargo imposed by these countries on the import of Ukrainian grain, decided to stop participating in the work of the coordination platform of the European Commission (EC) on the problems of supplies of Ukrainian grain, TASS reports.
Representatives of the EC, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine took part in the work of the platform. The meetings took place in Brussels. Against the background of the EC’s refusal to extend this embargo after September 15, 2023, Budapest, Bratislava and Warsaw extended the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products at the national level.