Ukraine's minister expects transit of Ukrainian agricultural products via Romania, Hungary, Slovakia to continue
MOSCOW. April 19 (Interfax) - Romania, Hungary and Slovakia will not restrict the transit of agricultural products from Ukraine, but negotiations on resuming Ukrainian agricultural exports to these countries are continuing, Ukraine's Agrarian Policy Minister Nikolai Solsky said at an extraordinary meeting of the Agrarian Policy Ministry's Coordination Council on Tuesday.
A participant in the meeting told Ukrainian media that transit shipments of agricultural products from Ukraine via Poland would resume with the use of T1 transit declarations and the SENT system, which helps track the movement of cargo through Polish territory and ensures that the cargo is sealed.
Consignments of agricultural products will start to enter Poland in the transit mode from midnight on April 21, and will be transported across Polish territory accompanied by Polish customs officers, the Ukrainian minister said.
No decision has been made so far regarding transit by rail which would include reloading cargo from wide-gauge railway cars (1,520mm) to narrow-gauge railway cars (1,435mm). Details of the procedure are expected to be made know to market players at a meeting of the Agrarian Policy Ministry's Coordination Council on Wednesday.
The ban on agricultural imports from Ukraine in line with the list from an annex to the April 15, 2023 executive order released by Polish Minister of Development and Technology Waldemar Buda has not been lifted thus far.
As reported earlier, Ukraine and Poland agreed to resume the transit of agricultural products from the list of banned imports on the night of April 20/21. Additional control measures will apply to such transit sipments. Customs, tax and other authorities will accompany vehicles to their destination, the Polish Agriculture Ministry said. The transit will also involve the use of the SENT mechanism and electronic seals, which will track every shipment.
Poland adopted a unilateral decision on April 15, following a farmers' congress, to temporarily ban the imports of all agricultural products from Ukraine for the period until June 30, 2023. It happened despite that presence of a July 7, 2022 bilateral agreement with Ukraine on suspending the export of only four crops - wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower - while the transit continued, albeit on tougher terms, which the sides planned to agree upon promptly.
Similar decisions were then adopted by Hungary and Slovakia.