The European Union will significantly increase import duties on fertilizers and certain agricultural products from Russia and Belarus. The intention is that these countries will be able to sell less fertilizer in Europe and thus have less income to finance the war in Ukraine.
The import duties will increase gradually each year, to a total of 100 percent in 2028, the European Parliament writes on Thursday. Currently, the import tariff for Russian fertilizer is 6.5 percent. The first increase will take effect on July 1.
In addition, Parliament has approved higher duties for several agricultural products. These include sugar, vinegar, flour, and animal feed. These tariffs will increase by 50 percent.
With the higher tariffs, the EU is preventing Russia from “using the European market to finance its war machine,” says MEP Inese Vaidere. It is, according to her, “unacceptable” that the EU, three years after Russia started the war, still buys “large quantities of products” from the country.
The European Commission and the EU member states already approved the levies in January. But European farmers pointed out that they could lead to higher costs in agriculture. Copa-Cogeca, the umbrella organization for European agriculture, said that farmers should not be the unintended victim of the levies.
The EU also hopes that the import duties will stimulate European fertilizer production. As a result, Europe will become less dependent on Russia, is the reasoning.