On September 24, UCAB together with the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism” in Brussels held an expert discussion “An Elephant in Europe’s pottery shop? Ukraine’s agricultural sector and EU-Ukraine Trade”, which was attended by representatives of the public sector, international and public organizations, farmers' associations, think tanks, and research institutions from both Ukraine and Europe. The event was moderated by Nazar Bobitski, Head of the UCAB EU office.

During the event, Deputy Minister of Economy, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka delivered an introductory speech “EU-Ukraine trade relations and Agriculture: the Autonomous Trade Measures regime and what may come next”, in which he noted the opportunities for the development of the Ukrainian agricultural sector in the context of the European direction, as well as outlined the priority ways of transformation of export liberalization to the EU markets.

The search for overcoming today's challenges continued during two panel discussions - "EU Trade Preferences for Ukraine: lessons learnt, future prospects" and “Sensitive products. Designing the EU - Ukraine trade in agrifood: effects, toolbox, expected outcomes" moderated by Nazar Bobitski, Head of the UCAB EU office and with the participation of Oleksandra Avramenko, Head of the European Integration Committee UCAB.

The panelists sought answers to the questions:

• Do Ukraine’s imports of agricultural commodities (sugar, eggs, poultry, cereals, oilseeds) destabilize the European market, or benefit consumers and strengthen competitiveness of European agrifood industries?
• How important is trade with the EU for the Ukrainian agricultural sector and the Ukrainian economy at large?
• Can the EU and Ukraine find a way forward in terms of trade policy once ATM regime lapses?

“The most important achievement of the event was a frank and at the same time constructive exchange of opinions, figures and facts on the impact of such important items of Ukrainian agro-exports to the EU as cereals, sugar and chicken. Prices, consumption, the impact of imports from other third countries, in particular the Mercosur bloc countries, were discussed in detail, which once again confirmed the fallacy of claims that Ukrainian agro-imports allegedly had a devastating impact on the situation of European agrarians”, – said Nazar Bobitski, Head of the UCAB EU office.

 “Despite understanding the reasons, the increase in Ukrainian exports to the EU in 2022-2023 has caused serious concern among European farmers. Unfortunately, we are still perceived as a threat to the existence of farming in the EU. Such events allow to gradually reduce the degree of tension between the parties and help to improve understanding and build communication between the Ukrainian and European agricultural sectors. Therefore, the Ukrainian agricultural sector is looking for opportunities to establish a dialog, because Ukraine's accession to the EU should be beneficial to all parties”, - summarized Oleksandra Avramenko, Head of the European Integration Committee UCAB.

The event is supported by a grant from the Foundation Open Society Institute in cooperation with the Open Society Foundations in the framework of ‘Strengthening Ukrainian expert voice in the European Union and EU member states and partners’ project.