European Commission to announce increase in tariffs on agricultural products from Russia and Belarus

The European Commission will announce new tariffs on certain types of agricultural imports from Russia and Belarus on Friday, 22 March.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen stated after the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels that the Commission prepared a proposal to increase tariffs on Russian and Belarusian imports of grains, oilseed seeds and processed products, adding that there are "several good reasons" for this proposal. 

"It will prevent the Russian grain from destabilising the EU market in these products, it will stop Russia from using the revenues from exports of these products to the European Union and it will ensure that illegal Russian exports of stolen Ukrainian grain do not enter the EU market," von der Leyen said.

Such a move by the Commission will be the first restriction on Russian food products since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In his address to the EU summit, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation where Russian food products are being imported into Europe while Ukrainian grain is being spilled onto the asphalt or railway tracks is "not fair".

Earlier, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Polish and Czech agriculture ministers appealed to the European Commission to ban the import of grain from Russia and Belarus into the European Union.

Prior to that, sources familiar with the plans reported that the European Commission would announce a €95 per tonne duty on grain from Russia and Belarus. The sources report that this would lead to a price increase of at least 50%, which would destroy demand.