The Ukrainian government intends to uphold the need for the European Parliament to take a decision to increase quotas for Ukrainian agricultural products, despite the negative decision of the International Trade Committee, said Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mikolskaya.
According to her, the vote of the committee on international trade is only an intermediate stage, the final decision is taken by the European Parliament.
"Therefore, we, the government together with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the president of Ukraine will continue to work with the European Parliament and the European Commission and other institutions of the European Union with a view to the early adoption of a legislative package on supporting trade preferences, because we worked and will work to expand the presence of Ukrainian exporters in the European market ", - she said.
The deputy minister added that the future voting in the European Parliament on the expansion of quotas is extremely important for Ukraine, not only from an economic but also a political point of view.
"The Ukrainian side emphasizes the exclusively political importance of additional preferences as a signal of the unity of the European community with the efforts of Ukraine, which are carried out in the context of the confrontation of trade, transit and financial aggression from the Russian Federation," she added..
Recall, the European Parliament's International Trade Committee on May 4 voted against increasing quotas on imports of Ukrainian wheat, tomatoes and urea.
In September, 2016 the Eurocommission has suggested to raise quotas on a number of commodity positions from Ukraine. It was about the possibility of increasing the quota for corn - by 650 thousand tons, wheat - 100 thousand tons, barley - 350 thousand tons, grains and processed grain - by 7.8 thousand tons, oats - 4 thousand tons, honey - 3 thousand tons, Grape juice - 500 tons, processed tomatoes - 5 thousand tons.
In March 2017, the European Parliament Committee on Agrarian Issues voted against increasing quotas for cereals and processed tomatoes from Ukraine.
According to the agreement on association with the EU, Ukraine can supply 36 goods to the European Union without tariffs within the limits of the approved volumes of tariff quotas. Quotas for supplies for beef are 12 thousand. Milk, yogurts, fermented milk products - 8 thousand tons, milk powder - 1,5 thousand tons, butter - 1,5 thousand tons, egg products - 1,5 thousand tons, eggs - 3 thousand tons, pork - 40 thousand T.
The volume of tariff quotas provided for by the EU autonomous trade preferences for wheat was 950 thousand tonnes, barley - 250 thousand tonnes, maize - 400 thousand tonnes, sugar - 20 thousand tonnes, honey - 5 thousand tonnes, processed tomatoes - 10 thousand tonnes, grape and Apple juice - 10 thousand tons, oats - 4 thousand tons, garlic - 500 tons.
As reported, following the results of the first quarter of 2017, Ukraine has fully selected annual quotas for duty-free exports to the EU for six categories of goods: honey, sugar, cereals and flour, processed tomatoes, grape and apple juice, corn.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Ukraine has entered the top 3 countries of the largest exporters of agricultural products to the market of the European Union.