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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki introduced on Friday that Warsaw will unilaterally block the import of agricultural produce from Ukraine beginning at midnight, after studying that the EU has determined to elevate the ban imposed in Might to guard farmers in a number of member states.
Morawiecki’s announcement makes good on his menace from Tuesday that Poland “won’t enable Ukrainian grain to flood us.” The Polish basic election is subsequent month and the ruling get together has tried to color the opposition as lackeys of the EU.
“What we’ll do now, we’ll lengthen this ban, regardless of the disagreement of the European Fee,” Morawiecki mentioned at a marketing campaign occasion in Elk. He accused the opposition Civic Platform of going to Brussels “on its knees, with paws like a canine to beg for some sort of consent and nonetheless will get punched within the face.”
The EU had imposed a brief moratorium on import of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds to Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia in early Might, overriding the bans already put in place by these international locations. Farmers within the 5 member states of the bloc had been protesting the disruption to the extremely regulated market attributable to Ukrainian exports, after Brussels lifted the tariffs on Kiev to assist President Vladimir Zelensky’s battle effort.
The EU ban allowed Ukrainian merchandise to be transported by means of the 5 international locations, however not bought or warehoused there. It was initially supposed to finish in June, however was prolonged by means of mid-September.
Final week, Zelensky insisted on letting the ban expire, saying anything could be a betrayal of “European values” and threatening to take the EU to the World Commerce Group (WTO) for arbitration.
Hungary, Romania and Slovakia may even reinstate their very own bans and brace for “a critical combat in Brussels,” Hungarian PM Viktor Orban mentioned in a radio look on Friday.
Orban defined that the EU had initially justified the “grain corridors” by claiming the Ukrainian merchandise will feed the hungry in Africa, however the imports ended up getting purchased for reasonable by European speculators as a substitute.
“The poor African youngsters haven’t seen a loaf of bread” from this grain, Orban mentioned, calling the entire thing “a rip-off.” Ukrainian grain can nonetheless transit by means of Hungary, he added, however “it can’t keep right here, it can’t keep in Europe.”
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