Some legal aspects of polish-ukrainian agricultural trade confrontation

Abstract

Due to a key role of Ukrainian cereals and oilseeds in the global food security, any disruptions to export flows from Ukraine may be of great importance. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and the blockade of Ukrainian ports, the EU provided the so-called solidarity lane for exporting agricultural goods originating from Ukraine through the EU to the sea ports. EU border states to Ukraine, including Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria have been complaining about market distortions due to a surge in agricultural exports from Ukraine. The most noticeable confrontation is observed between Poland and Ukraine, where Polish farmers occasionally block the border with Ukraine to stop imports from the neighbouring state. This paper aims to provide a legal analysis of the ongoing trade tensions between Poland and Ukraine, focusing on the trade-related measures applied to Ukrainian grains imported to the EU and legal instruments to manage their negative consequences. Especially the regime of EU autonomous trade measures for agricultural imports from Ukraine will be studied, together with its modifications over the past two years. Additionally, some approaches to mitigate the negative impact of the import duties suspensions with Ukraine will be taken into consideration.