EU to impose indirect trade restrictions on Russian and Belarusian grain

This week, the European Commission is set to propose restrictions on grain imports from Russia and Belarus. However, these will not be sanctions per se, as such measures would require unanimity among member states. Instead, the approach will involve other trade restrictions.

A project has been initiated within the European Commission aiming to introduce restrictions on the import of Russian and Belarusian agricultural products into the European Union indirectly. Since achieving consensus among the Community's countries on this matter is unlikely, Brussels plans to enforce other trade restrictions.

As reported by the "Financial Times," the EC will unveil these restrictions this week, confirming earlier reports from RMF24.

According to the website, this decision was influenced by farmers' protests and efforts by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who discussed this last week with EC President Ursula von der Leyen, at the European People's Party summit in Bucharest.

Brussels is concerned that an embargo on food imports from Russia into the Union could lead to significant consequences, such as price hikes. Therefore, it will opt for quantitative limits.

Until now, these restrictions have only been applied to Ukrainian grain. "An embargo on Russian grain is necessary for various reasons. It sends an important message to Ukrainians, who are puzzled why their grain is restricted while imports from Russia or Belarus are not," Jacek Piechota, the president of the Polish Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, told money.pl.

Meanwhile, Russian grain continues to enter the European Union. Official trade data for 2022 shows that EU countries imported roughly 1 million tons (rounded) of grain from Russia. According to Eurostat, the import figure 2023 has already reached close to 1.5 million tons.