Overview

• The EU’s provisional duty-free regime for Ukrainian imports, introduced in 2022 to bolster Ukraine’s economy, ended at midnight on June 6 and reverted to seven-twelfths tariff quotas under a 2016 framework until year-end.
• Ukrainian agribusiness groups warn that the expiration could cost their country up to €3.3 billion in export revenues and shrink GDP by roughly 2.5 percent in 2025.
• Farmers in Eastern Europe and several member states had campaigned for stricter rules, arguing that cheap Ukrainian agricultural imports created unfair competition at home.
• Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee, criticized the lapse of the exemptions as “unsäglich” and called for quicker action on successor measures.
• EU Commission officials have launched accelerated negotiations with Kyiv to secure a comprehensive trade pact that balances market access and farmers’ concerns.