Significantly higher import duties on some of Russian and Belarusian agricultural products, including grain, enter into force in the European Union from Monday.
A proposal by the European Commission in March to impose higher tariffs on cereals, oilseeds and their products, including wheat, maize, sunflower meal, as well as beet pellets and dried peas, was endorsed by member state ministers in charge of foreign trade in late May.
According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture, depending on the product concerned, import duties will increase to 95 euros per tonne or more, or up to 50 percent of their entry value.
Many agricultural imports from Russia and Belarus have so far been exempted from or subject to low EU import tariffs.
EC Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said back in March that higher tariffs on certain Russian and Belarusian agricultural products would effectively stop them entering the EU market.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian Agriculture Minister Kęstutis Navickas said at the end of May that the EU should extend the restrictions to all agricultural products of Russian and Belarusian origin.
The higher tariffs will not apply to Russian or Belarusian cereals transiting through the EU to countries outside the bloc, to ensure that food supplies to other third countries are not affected.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously stated that it is unfair that Russian grain can enter EU markets while Ukrainian exports are restricted.
At the same time, when the EC proposed higher duties on Russian and Belarusian agricultural products at the end of March, Russia warned that this move was unacceptable. “Consumers in Europe would definitely suffer,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time.
According to EC data, 4.8 million tonnes of cereals worth 1.5 billion euros were imported into the EU from Russia and Belarus last year.
Meanwhile, imports of cereals from Russia alone increased by 56.4 percent last year to 1.5 million tonnes (compared to 959,000 tonnes in 2022). Italy, Latvia, Spain, and Greece were the biggest importers.
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