Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has called for higher tariffs on Russian and Belarusian agricultural products to make their imports in the EU uncompetitive.
“We have to take decisions to prevent [agricultural] imports and I’d like to urge my colleagues to take economic measures, additional tariffs, to make these imports from Russia and Belarus simply uncompetitive,” Nausėda told Lithuanian reporters at the start of the European Council’s two-day summit in Brussels on Wednesday.
“I believe that we’ll have a text about restricting agricultural products in the proposal,” he said. “We are interested in keeping the number of exemptions as low as possible.”
Nausėda expects that the EU will also adopt a broader definition of agricultural products subject to stricter taxation, but acknowledges that a compromise may have to be sought as “some countries have their own interests and reservations”.
Earlier this month, the EU started considering the Commission’s proposal to impose “prohibitive tariffs” on Russian and Belarusian grain imports into the bloc. Lithuania suggests increasing the tariffs on vegetables and fish products as well.
According to the Commission’s proposal, tariffs will depend on the specific product. For example, common wheat and durum wheat would be subject to a duty of 95 euros and 148 euros per ton, respectively, and oilseeds to a 50-percent import tariff.
Lithuania, along with Latvia, Estonia, Poland and the Czech Republic, last month urged the EU’s executive body to impose a full ban on grain imports from Russia and Belarus.
Under the World Trade Organization’s rules, Russian agricultural products are now exempt from any EU import duties.
According to the Commission’s data, 4.8 million tons of grain, worth 1.5 billion euros, were imported into the EU from Russia and Belarus last year.
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