Ukraine suspending WTO grain complaint is “good step but not enough”, says Poland

Ukraine has suspended its complaints against Poland, Slovakia and Hungary at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and says it is close to reaching an agreement to end the grain export dispute that led it to file the cases.

Poland has welcomed the move as “a good step” but wants Ukraine to fully withdraw, rather than just suspend, its complaint.

Docelowo domagamy się wycofania skargi, a nie zawieszenia tego postępowania. Bo uważamy, od samego początku, że nie ma żadnych podstaw aby ta skarga była złożona – skomentował Piotr Müller pytany o deklarację Ukrainy o wycofaniu skargi do WTO.https://t.co/fPaR09JMJc pic.twitter.com/W1tm2z1yrl

— TVP Parlament (@TVPParlament) October 6, 2023

Ukraine launched legal action against the three countries last month after they unilaterally extended a ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products after an EU-backed embargo expired.

Subsequently, negotiations have taken place, with both Poland and Ukraine last week suggesting that progress was being made towards an agreement to end the dispute.

Yesterday, the Ukrainian government’s trade representative, Taras Kachka, announced that his country had suspended its complaints at the WTO.

“We see that this problem [of grain exports] will be resolved in the coming weeks and months,” he said, quoted by the Interfax news agency. “Therefore, while we are seeking a practical solution, our disputes in the WTO are on pause today.”

Poland has hailed progress made in talks with Ukraine over grain exports.

It says a deal could be reached that would ease transit through Poland by transferring inspections from the Polish-Ukrainian border to German and Lithuanian ports https://t.co/QEiCLu6GLC

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 27, 2023

Kachka hailed the fact that Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are still permitting transit of grain as a “great achievement”. He admitted that the question of imports to those countries remains “sensitive” but is a “minor problem because we do not sell a lot of grain products there”.

His remarks stand in contrast to the tough line taken by Ukrainian officials in recent weeks, who had condemned the eastern EU trio for their refusal to permit imports.

Speaking today to broadcaster RMF, the Polish government’s spokesman, Piotr Müller, said that Ukraine’s decision was “a good step but not enough”.

Poland “demands the withdrawal of the complaint, not the suspension of the proceedings”, said Müller, who also reiterated that “there is absolutely no question of lifting our grain embargo”.

Poland’s government says it is “not impressed” by Ukraine’s decision to sue over its continued ban on grain imports.

Meanwhile, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee has accused Germany’s agriculture minister of “arrogance” on the issue https://t.co/0VKt5hB8Ds

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 19, 2023

“We are in constant dialogue with the Ukrainian side, but to put it bluntly, I do not expect any significant breakthrough here soon. It is a complicated issue,” added Müller.

Those remarks appeared to differ from a positive update issued by Poland’s agrulture minister, Robert Telus, last week in which he suggested that significant progress had been made towards an agreement.

Speaking today, Telus admitted that he does not know “what it means that the complaint is suspended”. Like Müller, he called for Ukraine to withdraw its “groundless and absurd” complaint completely.

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Main image credit: Agriculture Ministry (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)