The European Commission (EC) and Ukraine have reached a preliminary agreement to revise the bilateral Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement under Article 29. 

Key elements of the agreement include: 

• Ukraine’s commitment to gradually align its agricultural production standards with EU standards by 2028, in line with its EU accession goals. 
• The EC has established a reliable safeguard mechanism to protect EU markets, particularly where imports could cause significant difficulties at the EU or member state level. 
• The agreement expands trade opportunities for agri-food products. 
• For sensitive products such as eggs, sugar, and wheat, quotas will increase but remain below historical trade volumes to ensure EU market stability. 
• For less sensitive products, quotas will see moderate increases, while some products will be fully liberalized. 
• Ukraine will benefit from increased export quotas for pork, poultry, and sugar, enhancing opportunities for European farmers, especially in EU member states bordering Ukraine. 

The agreement requires approval from the EU Council to enter into force. 

The updated system, structured in three tiers, offers Ukraine limited import opportunities for products deemed “sensitive” by EU countries, such as eggs, poultry, sugar, wheat, corn, or honey, with only slight quota increases. 

Second-tier products, including butter, skimmed milk powder, malt, gluten, oats, and barley, will have quotas increased to the highest levels recorded since the start of the war. 

Third-tier products, such as whole milk powder, fermented milk, mushrooms, and grape juice, will be fully liberalized.

Reference source: http://surl.li/dhfhdbhfvbh4hbdf