Polish agriculture minister calls Ukrainian-Polish border blocking reasonable

MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - Farmers have reasonable expectations of limiting the excessive supply of goods from Ukraine and other non-EU markets to the European Union, especially Poland, Ukrainian media said, citing Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski as telling polskieradio.pl in an interview.

"Poland and other border countries have been affected most by the EU's decision to liberalize trade and to open the EU market for goods from Ukraine without customs duties and quotas," Siekierski said.

He said he opted to limit the imports and make sure that "the Polish market stays calm."

Bilateral negotiations with Ukraine are underway to discuss possible restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural imports, Siekierski said.

"We want to set certain levels and amounts for us to control. A blockade begins whenever too many goods are supplied and disrupt the market, so, remember that trade goes both ways. We also export goods inside and outside the EU. Of course, we are not competitive with Ukrainian agriculture, which makes large quantities of products," he said.

Poland will submit proposals to the European Commission upon coordination with Ukraine, Siekierski said.

Some regions of Poland "will need a full quarantine, just like in the case of grain," he said, adding that he implied the imports of Ukrainian sugar and poultry.

Siekierski accepted the farmers' arguments and said their blocking of roads was an acceptable form of protest.

"We met with representatives of all agrarian trade unions three days ago. We asked them to make the protests as least burdensome for citizens as possible and were told why the farmers were protesting. The reason is their dire economic position: farmers have no money to buy fertilizers," he said.

As reported, Polish farmers announced the beginning of a protest on February 9. It is expected to last for 30 days when the protesters will be blocking checkpoints at the Ukrainian-Polish border. The board of NSZZ Solidarnose Rolnikow Indywidualnych was among those who decided to protest. It explained the protest with the recent European Commission decision to extend duty-free trade with Ukraine until 2025.