© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A barge carrying grains is being unloaded on the COMVEX terminal in Constanta harbour, in Constanta, Romania August 1, 2022. Inquam Photos/George Calin by way of REUTERS/File Photo
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By Anna Pruchnicka
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine agreed to license its grain exports to Slovakia on Thursday and pushed for a deal with Poland to finish restrictions by its neighbours on grain that it has been pressured to ship overland since Russia’s invasion final yr.
Slovakia, Poland and Hungary imposed nationwide restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports final week after the European Union government determined to not lengthen its ban on imports into these international locations and fellow bloc members Bulgaria and Romania.
The international locations have argued that low-cost Ukrainian agricultural items meant primarily to transit additional west and to ports, get offered domestically, harming their very own farmers. The EU, which imposed its ban in May, let it expire on Friday after Ukraine vowed to tighten controls.
For a lot of the final yr, some 60% of grain from Ukraine, one of many world’s largest exporters, has transited via the 5 japanese EU international locations.
The row escalated as Ukraine, which turned to land routes to the west after a de facto Russian blockade of its Black Sea (NYSE:) ports, filed a grievance with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the bans and threatened retaliatory import restrictions.
Slovakia’s agriculture ministry stated it had agreed with Ukraine to arrange a licensing system for buying and selling in grains, which, as soon as established, would permit a ban on imports of 4 Ukrainian commodities to Slovakia to be lifted.
“(Ministers) agreed on creating a grain trade system based on issuing and controlling licences,” the Slovak ministry stated by e-mail. “Until this system is up and running and fully tested, the ban on imports of four commodities from Ukraine remains in place.”
Ukraine had comply with drop its WTO grievance, the Slovak ministry stated. Ukrainian officers didn’t instantly remark on that. A WTO spokesperson stated there was no data at current on a doable cancellation of Ukraine’s request for consultations.
Ukraine stated its farm minister, in a telephone name with his Polish counterpart, agreed to work out a solution to the grain dispute within the pursuits of each international locations.
“There is no person in Ukraine who would be interested in creating any problems for Polish farmers,” Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zvarych informed Poland’s state-run information company PAP, including that he thought an accord on the grain subject might be reached.
Spain’s agriculture minister on Monday stated the bans appeared unlawful whereas his French counterpart stated they known as European solidarity into query.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy angered his neighbours when he informed the United Nations General Assembly Kyiv was working to protect land routes for grain exports, however that the “political theatre” round grain imports was solely serving to Moscow.
Ukraine final month introduced a humanitarian hall to launch ships caught in its ports certain for African and Asian markets. The hall, which hugs the western shores of the Black Sea, goals to bypass the de facto Russian blockade after Moscow deserted a deal this summer time that had assured its exports in the course of the battle.
The first vessel loaded with grain from Ukraine to sail out and in of the Black Sea utilizing the momentary hall arrived off Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait on Thursday.
