Poland may ban Russian agricultural imports, says PM Tusk

Latvia has already implemented a ban

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Published: February 29, 2024

Trucks wait for crossing into Poland at the Rava-Ruska border checkpoint in Ukraine’s Lviv region on April 17, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Roman Baluk)

Warsaw | Reuters — Poland doesn’t rule out introducing a ban on agricultural products from Russia, the prime minister said on Thursday during a visit to Warsaw by his counterpart from Latvia, which has already implemented such a ban.

Like much of Europe, Poland has been gripped by protests in recent weeks as farmers demonstrate against European Union environmental regulations and what they say is unfair competition from Ukraine since the bloc waived duties on imports in 2022.

However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said agricultural products from Russia and Belarus were also causing market distortions.

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“Latvia decided to implement an embargo on the import of (agricultural) products from Russia,” Donald Tusk told a news conference. “We will analyse the case of Latvia, and I do not rule out that Poland will take an appropriate initiative.”

Tusk said the European Union needed to “seriously focus on better regulations when it comes to the import of cereals and food products from the east”.

Tusk is due to meet the farmers’ leaders later on Thursday.

–Reporting for Reuters by Karol Badohal and Pawel Florkiewicz.

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