The current EU safeguard instruments on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products are insufficient and need to be strengthened, including through the automatic reintroduction of tariffs if import volumes exceed average levels of previous years. This was stated by Polish Minister of Agriculture Stefan Krajewski during a meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council (Agrifish) in Brussels, ProAgro Group reports.

“This is an initiative of Poland, supported by other countries, mainly Ukraine’s neighbors as well as Austria. We are demanding stronger control over imports from third countries,” Krajewski said.

According to him, agricultural imports often fail to meet the standards that EU farmers are required to comply with, creating unequal competitive conditions on the European market.

Poland is proposing stricter border controls on quality and food safety, the introduction of monthly monitoring of import volumes with an assessment of their impact on national markets, as well as the creation of a special compensation fund to support farmers affected by increased imports.

“Farmers who suffer losses due to excessive inflows of goods under free trade agreements must receive support,” the minister stressed.

Krajewski also highlighted the need for automatic safeguard mechanisms:

“If imports of a given product exceed average levels from previous years, tariffs should be restored automatically. This is the only way to give farmers a sense of stability.”

He added that Poland’s concerns are shared by other EU member states whose markets are under pressure from imports of grain, sugar, and poultry meat, noting that the European Commission is listening to these arguments.

As reported earlier, Poland nearly doubled its imports of table eggs in the first nine months of 2025 to 25.4 thousand tonnes from 13.7 thousand tonnes a year earlier, in an effort to maintain export volumes and curb domestic price growth.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine