BRUSSELS, May 30 (Reuters) - European Union trade ministers agreed on Thursday to impose prohibitive tariffs on cereals, oilseeds and derived products from Russia and Belarus from July 1, a move that will "in practice" halt imports of these products.
The tariffs will be 95 euros ($102.76) per ton for cereals and 50% for oilseeds. The ministers' decision follows a proposal from the European Commission on March 22.
"The new tariffs set today aim to stop the imports of grain from Russia and Belarus into the EU in practice," said Vincent Van Peteghem, the finance minister of Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
"These measures will therefore prevent the destabilisation of the EU’s grain market, halt Russian exports of illegally appropriated grain produced in the territories of Ukraine and prevent Russia from using revenues from exports to the EU to fund its war of aggression against Ukraine," he said.
Russia exported 4.2 million metric tons of cereals, oilseeds and derived products to the EU in 2023, worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion). This represented about 1% of the EU market.
The Commission has said there was a risk that imports could increase, given Russian overall wheat exports had risen to 50 million tons from the usual 35 million tons. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski Editing by Gareth Jones)
