Hungarian government to ban imports of large share of Ukrainian agricultural goods

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has announced that Hungary will ban imports of a significant share of agricultural products from Ukraine.

Source: Magyar on Facebook on 22 May, as reported by European Pravda

Details: "The government is withdrawing Hungary's intention to leave the International Criminal Court and is banning imports of agricultural products from Ukraine," Magyar wrote.

Previously: On the afternoon of 22 May, the Hungarian Gazette posted a government decree on measures concerning the transport of certain agricultural products from Ukraine, the Hungarian news outlet Telex reported.

According to the decree, the import ban covers, in particular, beef, pork, lamb and goat meat, poultry, eggs, honey, vegetables, wheat, rye, barley, maize, buckwheat, flour, sunflower seeds, edible oil and wine, if they originate from Ukraine.

The import ban does not apply to goods in transit through Hungary, although such shipments are subject to strict conditions.

In the event of violations, carriers may be fined up to 100% of the value of the goods excluding VAT.

As Telex explained, regulations linked to emergency governance ceased to be valid following the end of the state of emergency on 14 May, so the Tisza government transposed part of them into law. However, the ban on imports of Ukrainian products was not included in those provisions and this has now been addressed by the current decision.

Szabolcs Bóna, Minister of Agriculture and Food, said on 21 May that they would not allow Ukrainian or any other imported goods to threaten the livelihoods of Hungarian farmers or the supply of healthy food to the Hungarian population.

According to the minister, protecting Hungarian products, Hungarian farmland and Hungarian farmers is a matter of national interest. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture will immediately analyse the situation and take the necessary legal steps to ensure that protection of the Hungarian market becomes clear and enforceable again.

Background:

• The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Hungary are set to hold talks in the last week of May and have agreed on the conditions for a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Péter Magyar.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met his Hungarian counterpart Anitta Orban in person on 22 May and shared a photo from the meeting.

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