Warsaw and kyiv announced this Tuesday an agreement that could accelerate the transit of Ukrainian grain to other countries through the territory of Lithuania.
This is the first agreement between Poland and Ukraine since the announcement in September of the Polish embargo on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products.
The agreement directly involves Lithuania.
“We have reached an agreement on an important issue,” declared Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus at the end of a tripartite meeting.
“From tomorrow [quarta-feira], checks at the border between Ukraine and Poland on grain transiting through Lithuania will be carried out on Lithuanian territory. In a Lithuanian port,” he said.
“Lithuania assumes full responsibility for these inspections,” he added.
Telus added that Poland will continue to build transit corridors because, he said, “it is good for Polish farmers, for Ukraine, for the European Union and for the whole world, since grain from Ukraine must be transported to the regions that need it.” . “
This is the first agreement between Poland and Ukraine since the beginning of the diplomatic crisis between both countries, caused by the Polish embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain.
Warsaw aimed to protect the domestic market and domestic farmers by “price collapse” of agricultural products.
The transit of Ukrainian grain through Poland to other countries is still authorized.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Ukraine, the decision announced this Tuesday “will speed up transit through Poland.”
In a press release, the Ukrainian Ministry further stated that Warsaw and Vilnius “support the control mechanism and consider it a constructive step.”
Since the start of the second Russian offensive in Ukraine (February 2022), Moscow has blocked access to the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s neighboring countries have become essential for the transit of Ukrainian grain to Africa and the Middle East.
Ukraine’s neighboring states have seen an influx of grain after the European Union lifted customs duties in May 2022.
Instead of reaching their desired destinations, the grains remained in Central Europe due to logistical problems, fraud and lack of surveillance.
After the saturation of the silos and the fall in prices, several countries imposed a unilateral embargo.
Brussels formally approved these restrictions – on a temporary basis – and subject to maintaining the passage of cereals to other destinations.
The agreement expired in mid-September and the European Commission decided not to renew it.
In return, kyiv promised measures to better control export flows.
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia retaliated by prolonging the embargo, prompting Ukraine to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The embargo caused a crisis in relations between kyiv and Warsaw.
At the end of September, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, declared that neither Ukraine nor Poland “needed the grain war”, considering that the electoral campaign for the Polish legislative elections on October 15 was “stoking tensions” .
Source: TSF
