Starting tomorrow, Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) tariff quotas from Ukraine in the EU are reintroduced for imports of eggs and sugar. The revised autonomous trade measures (ATMs), effective from 6 June 2024, include an emergency brake for seven agricultural products, which will be activated automatically if import volumes reach the average annual imports recorded between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2023.

For eggs and sugar, this average is set at 23,188.96 tonnes and 262,652.68 tonnes respectively. Article 4 of Regulation 2024/1392 establishes, that once these volumes are reached, the Commission has 14 days to reintroduce the corresponding tariff share of the DCFTA between the EU and Ukraine. Since imports of eggs and sugar from Ukraine from the beginning of 2024 are already higher than the volumes established in the DCFTA tariff quota, additional imports will continue under Most Favored Nations (MFN) tariffs.

From 1 January 2025 to 5 June 2025, a new tariff quota will be introduced, corresponding to five twelfths of the threshold established for the activation of the emergency brake. For eggs, this new quota is set at 9,662.07 tonnes, while for sugar it is equivalent to 109,438.62 tonnes. In all third countries, Ukraine exported a total of 32 thousand tons of egg products in 2022 and 57 thousand tons in 2023. In addition to the EU, the country also exports to several countries in the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and of West Africa.

As for sugar, Ukraine exported a total of about 181 thousand tons in 2022 and 508 thousand tons in 2023. Since November 2023, Ukraine started exporting to non-EU destinations in Europe, as well as to countries in Africa and the Middle Orient.

Effective from 4 June 2022, the Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs) have had a clear positive effect on Ukraine's trade with the EU. Together with the Solidarity Lanes, the ATMs ensured that trade flows from Ukraine to the EU remained remarkably stable in 2022 and 2023 despite severe disruptions caused by the war and against the general trend of decreasing overall Ukrainian trade. EU imports from Ukraine amounted to 22.8 billion euros in 2023, compared to pre-war levels of 24 billion euros in 2021.