WTO published Ukraine’s requests to Poland, Hungary and Slovakia

The World Trade Organization (WTO) published Ukraine’s requests to Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, filed due to the renewal of the embargo on agricultural supplies. Documentation published on the WTO website.

They say that Ukraine has requested consultations on this topic. “This request is intended to review existing laws, regulations, policies and practices, as well as any changes or amendments to those laws, regulations, policies or practices that may be in process or may be implemented in the future by the Republic of Poland or at EU level,” – they say.

As a legal basis for the complaints, a number of articles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) are indicated: on the import of agricultural products, restriction of freedom of grain transit, publication of regulations for review by Kiev, etc. “These measures are discriminatory, since they apply only to imports from Ukraine , and not to imports from other WTO members,” the documents say. At the same time, the statements indicate that the claims may be expanded with the emergence of new circumstances and information.

On September 15, the European Commission (EC) lifted restrictions on the import of Ukrainian grain to Eastern European countries. Despite the EC’s decision, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia extended the embargo.

Ukraine filed claims against these countries on September 18. First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko stated that these countries “violated their international obligations” and did not coordinate their trade policy with the EU, introducing unilateral restrictions. And this, according to Kyiv’s position, is “unacceptable”, since this policy “belongs to the exclusive competence of the EU” and not Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 19, accused Warsaw of the fact that its resumption of restrictions “turns this issue into a thriller,” and by doing this they are allegedly helping Russia.

In response, on September 20, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Vasily Zvarych was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic, as reported by the department’s press service. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Pavel Jablonski conveyed to Zvarych the “strong protest of the Polish side.” “Pressuring Poland in multilateral forums or sending complaints to international tribunals are not appropriate methods for resolving disputes between two countries,” Jablonski responded. On September 20, Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus stated that Ukraine’s WTO claim has no legal basis.

According to the acting Head of the Department of International Law, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University Olga Kadysheva, the nonsense of the situation is that the defendant is not the EU, but these three countries. “In the WTO, EU member states themselves do not act as plaintiffs or defendants in the WTO dispute resolution procedure; they are represented by the EU. On the other hand, the main document regulating the resolution of disputes within the WTO does not contain mechanisms according to which Ukraine could refuse to accept requests for consultations,” she notes. According to Kadysheva, given the political context, the requests are unlikely to progress further to the creation of arbitration panels.