Poland ready to shut border for Ukrainian agriproducts as temporary measure - Tusk
That’s according to the head of the Polish government, Donald Tusk, who spoke at a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gar Støre in Warsaw on Wednesday.
The Polish prime minister said Warsaw was ready for a “serious conversation” about the cap on Ukrainian agricultural products coming into Poland.
"The caps proposed by Brussels and Kyiv are unacceptable for us," Tusk emphasized.
He noted that there was an attempt to slightly limit the flow of agricultural products from Ukraine, so that as much agricultural products could enter duty-free as on average in 2022-2023. Meanwhile, Poland will propose to Brussels that this measuring period should not be the years 2022-2023, when the war was already going on, but the period before the war. In his opinion, the caps should be stricter so that they do no harm to Polish producers.
"It is no secret that we are in dialogue with the Ukrainian side about the temporary closure of the border, the complete shutdown of trade. I will also talk about this with Polish farmers. But this would be a temporary solution because it would also affect Poland," Tusk emphasized.
The head of the Polish government emphasized that Poland has a positive trade balance with Ukraine.
"Poland sells much more to Ukraine than it receives from Ukraine," the head of the Polish government noted, adding that different groups have different interests.
"I am ready to make even firm decisions regarding the border with Ukraine in dialogue with Ukraine, so that there is no unnecessary tension between Kyiv and Warsaw. We have to find a long-term solution," Tusk stressed.
He announced an agrarian summit to be held in Warsaw on Thursday, which will be attended by the leaders of all agrarian organizations protesting in Warsaw and on the border with Ukraine. Therefore, it will solve the problems of agrarians.
According to him, the Polish side is looking for solutions that will protect the Polish and European markets from the influx of much cheaper agricultural products from Ukraine.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Polish farmers who protested in Warsaw on February 27 against the European green agenda and the influx of Ukrainian agricultural products into the domestic market, plan to rally again on March 6.
Since February 9, 2024, Polish farmers have been protesting on the roads leading to checkpoints near the border with Ukraine. Their main demands include a ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products and rejection of the EU’s green course.
Five cases were recorded where Ukrainian agriproducts were dumped from freight rail cars onto the rail tracks or from trucks on the roads. The police probed all such cases, forwarding them to prosecutors.
Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, Marcin Kerwinski, said the dumping of crops is unacceptable, and that Polish authorities will respond to such manifestations of anarchy and detain the culprits.
