January 29, Pozirk. The European Commission has adopted a proposal to impose tariffs on imports of agricultural products and nitrogen-based fertilizers from Belarus and Russia, it said in a press release yesterday.
New tariffs would reduce the European Union’s dependency on imports from both countries, which make the bloc “vulnerable to potential coercive actions by Russia and thus present a risk to EU food security,” it noted.
The move would place all Russian agricultural imports under tariffs, affecting Moscow’s export revenues and its ability to wage war against Ukraine, the release stressed.
At the same time, tariffs would prompt the EU to diversify imports from other countries, while providing for measures to mitigate potential price increases for EU farmers.
New tariffs would not apply to agricultural and fertilizer exports to third countries, the commission stressed.
The proposal may be adopted if the European Parliament and the EU Council approve it by a majority of votes.
Last July, the EU raised tariffs on imports of certain agricultural products from Russia and Belarus.
Belarus ranked as the third-largest supplier of nitrogen fertilizers to Poland after Russia and Germany, reports said a few months ago. It was also ahead of Norway in supplies of compound fertilizers to Poland in January-June, ranking sixth after Morocco, Russia, Finland, the Netherlands and Lithuania.
In February 2022, Russia started a full-scale war against Ukraine in which the Belarusian authorities supported the Kremlin, allowing Russian troops to attack Ukraine from Belarus on multiple occasions and supplying arms to Moscow.
