Page 44 - UKRRptApr24

and Trade Representative Taras Kachka told the Financial Times (FT) in a comment published on March 6.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that the blockade of border crossings with Poland by Polish protesters has gone to a point where it no longer has economic or moral justification on March 4. "It is necessary to finally find a solution to the situation, in particular, on the Polish border, which has long gone beyond the boundaries of both economy and morality," he said in a video posted to his Telegram channel. Zelensky said he believes that Poland should not use the situation in Ukraine "in its internal political struggle."
KSE Agrocenter analysts estimate that Ukrainian farmers and grain transporters have already lost from $954,000 to $1.485B in 23 days of downtime at the borders. As of March 4, 2024, 1,044 trucks transporting agricultural products stood in line at the border with Poland.
The European Commission proposes to extend Ukraine’s transport visa-free status with certain conditions. The EC sent a proposal to the Council of Europe to extend the agreement with Ukraine and Moldova on the liberalization of road freight transport for 2025. The conditions offered are the following:
● Make obligatory the carrying of documents showing that a transport operator is duly authorized to perform international carriage and that the transport is being carried out under the Agreement;
● Make obligatory the carrying of specific documents certifying that an unladen operation is directly linked to a transit or bilateral operation, as required under the Agreement;
● Strengthen compliance by road haulage operators with obligations relating to operations authorized under the Agreement, fighting fraud or forgery of driver documents and road safety-related traffic offenses.
● Add a new safeguard clause: if the national road transport market in a specific geographical area experiences a major disturbance that can be attributed to the Agreement, the agreement could be suspended in that geographical area.
The Council of Europe should now give the EC a mandate to conduct negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. Once the mandate is received, the EC will begin formal talks to finalize the agreement.
The logistics cost of exporting agricultural products to the ports of Odesa has decreased by 33%. Logistics costs for the export of farm products through the ports of Odesa in 2023 decreased by 33% compared to 2022, and shipping through the Romanian port of Constanta via the Danube ports by 40%, and to the Polish ports of Gdansk and Gdynia by 42%. Thus, in 2022–2023, exporting agricultural products to the Romanian port of Constanta and the Polish ports of Gdansk and Gdynia was economically more profitable than to the seaports of Odesa. "In January 2024, for the first time in the last two years, the seaports of the Odesa region surpassed the Romanian port of Constanta and the Polish port of Gdansk in terms of export profitability. Due to the establishment of sea exports, transportation prices for products through Ukrainian ports, considering logistics, became more attractive than through European ports. In general, logistics accounted for about 21% of final grain sale prices on average last year, while in 2022, it accounted for 25%.
Trade between Ukraine and the Arab states last year amounted to $7.4B.
However, Ukraine's balance is negative by $400M. This is due to a corresponding increase in the supply of energy resources (oil and gas). The import of oil and gas from Arab countries to Ukraine increased by 14.3% last year.
44 UKRAINE Country Report April 2024 www.intellinews.com