The Slovak Chamber of Agriculture and Food (SPPK) has issued a strong call for the European Union to restore pre-war trade conditions with Ukraine once the current suspension of customs duties expires on June 5, 2025.
At its board meeting on Thursday, the chamber unanimously adopted a position urging an end to the so-called “customs holidays” that have allowed Ukrainian agricultural products tariff-free access to EU markets since June 2022.
According to the SPPK, the relaxation of trade rules following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a deeply disruptive effect on EU agricultural markets. The group claims that Ukrainian products have flooded the market, undercutting domestic and other European producers, particularly in cereals and oilseeds, and driving down prices.
Ukrainian farmers have effectively had preferential access to the EU single market without needing to adhere to the regulations and standards that often drive up production costs for EU farmers, making it difficult for them to compete on price.
“For us, the best alternative in terms of tariffs is for trade rules to apply as they were before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine,” said SPKK chairman Andrej Gajdoš. “There is really a lot at stake, including price turbulence, loss of markets, and imports of food produced under different production and safety rules.”
Gajdoš emphasized the need for a “systemic European solution” to regulate Ukrainian commodity imports in a way that maintains market balance and avoids the need for individual member states to take unilateral action against perceived Ukrainian dumping.
“We would like to see lower market turbulence, stability, and certainty that would allow our producers to establish their business plans reliably,” he added.
The board also took a firm stance on Ukraine’s future membership bid, insisting that Kyiv should fulfill all EU pre-accession criteria without exception. “Ukraine should unequivocally, without concessions and 100 percent, meet all pre-accession criteria in the same way as today’s EU member states, including the Slovak Republic, had to do so,” the SPPK stated.
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