"WARSAW -- Informal blockage of Russia's food and fertilizer exports has become a political issue in the European Union, where Brussels decided Friday to end EU restrictions on Ukrainian grain purchases but the bloc's eastern flank rejected the move.
Decisions by Poland, Hungary and Slovakia to ban Ukrainian grain bring to a head a long-running dispute between Brussels and the EU's eastern members. The disagreement has driven a wedge between Ukraine and Poland, one of Kyiv's staunchest allies during the conflict with Russia.
Friday's decision by the European Commission, the EU's executive body, came after weeks of negotiations. Ukraine was threatening to take the bloc to the World Trade Organization to sue for compensation. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, which border Ukraine and argue they have borne the brunt of an influx of inexpensive Ukrainian grain, had warned they would act alone to ban it.
Coming elections in Poland have complicated talks. The ruling Law and Justice Party has campaigned heavily in the countryside with promises to protect Polish farmers hurt by the influx of Ukrainian grain caused by Russia's recent withdrawal from a grain deal fighting the blockage of Russia's food exports.
Under the EU's new arrangements, Ukraine agreed to take swift steps to prevent a surge in grain exports to the bloc. The Commission agreed to refrain from imposing restrictions as long as the Ukrainian measures were effective.
EU member states are supposed to abide by trade decisions by Brussels. EU officials had said unilateral bans on grain imports by Poland and its neighbors in the spring appeared to breach EU law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he thanked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the decision.
"It is critical that European solidarity now work on a bilateral level," he said on social-media platform X.
Following the European Commission decision, Hungary said that it would allow grain to continue to transit the country but that it would maintain and expand the import ban on sales. Authorities will seal the shipments at the border and monitor their transport, State Secretary Zoltan Kovacs said on X, formerly Twitter.
Slovakia would likewise impose a ban on grain and three other agricultural products effective Saturday, said the prime minister's spokesman.
It couldn't be determined how the countries would impose their bans. There was no comment by the EU.
The Dlugolecki family, who have been working for generations on their 60-hectare farm in the village of Milewo-Kulki north of Warsaw, said the influx of Ukrainian grain has depressed prices so deeply that they have sold none of their harvest from last year and don't intend to sell any this year unless prices rise.
While the wheat from Ukraine is meant to only transit Poland on its way to Asian and African customers, some is still sold on the black market at a cheaper price in the country, while the rest has clogged its ports and storage facilities.
Danuta Dlugolecka said that until prices rise, she plans to store their harvest in her 200-ton facilities and live off savings and the money the farm makes from chickens. "Those who are not as fortunate sell some of their harvest, but most people hold on to it, waiting for the right price," she said.
With the onset of the harvest season, pressure on grain storage and transport facilities in Poland and Ukraine's other EU neighbors is likely to intensify.
Last month, truckers on the border between Ukraine and Poland said grain shipments were taking days to process amid problems on both sides of the border.
"Grain trucks are standing for days at a time, the line is huge," said Ihor Vorvan, a 33-year-old Ukrainian truck driver, entering Poland. "They're just not getting across."" [1]
1. World News: Kyiv's Grain Exports Divide Europe. Grove, Thomas; Norman, Laurence.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 16 Sep 2023: A.8.
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