For me it looks like a very cheap shot, but it’s understandable, cause I am Ukrainian. What is this all about? I mean, I understand the cause of protests, and the reasoning. But why to do it in such way? Is it… I dont know, some kind of tiredness of Ukrainians? It’s not like we have a lot of ways to earn money, or doing it because we are assholes. Could you pls give me very subjective opinions on this situation? Like what exactly you think about it?
by scp_euclid_object
4 comments
It’s a dickish move, but Polish farmers are afraid of cheap products from Ukraine, produced cheaper with no EU standards – it can ruin them in a long run.
As of right now there are no quotas or no tariffs on agricultural imports from Ukraine. Brussels has decided to take a reactionary approach to this issue. Meaning that if the imports exceed a certain limit then possibly Ukraine’s exports will be stricken with some kind of tariffs. And even then it’s still an if.
As of recently the exports from Ukraine are about the same as they were before the war so that itself has farmers in Poland and other bordering countries questioning the actions of EU.
Russia has closed off the Black Sea so the argument of food being exported to the “poor African countries” has since become irrelevant. The Ukrainian oligarchs don’t care to spend transit fees to move the food to the African continent, nor do they want to pay to transport it across Poland deeper into the EU. They just dump it mostly in Poland and other bordering countries because if you sell something low enough a buyer will always be found.
Also since Ukraine isn’t in the EU they don’t have to follow any of the strict production guidelines as the farmers in the EU do.
This will be a very dangerous precedent if the audacity, lawlessness and lynching will not be addressed by the Polish criminal authorities. It will become clear that some can do anything for the sake of “justice” as it seen by some groups of people.
As much as Poles might sympathise with Ukrainians, you’ll have a hard time finding business owner that will go bankrupt out of mercy.
Especially when it comes to strategic branch of economy that is farming.