The Ukrainian authorities have established a zero duty on the wine import from the EU from January 1, 2021. That is provided for by the obligation to zero import duties on a number of goods within a seven-year period in accordance with the economic part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
Prior to that, the duty on the wine import from the EU was 0.3-0.4 EUR per liter, writes AgroPolit.
In 2019, Ukraine exported wine worth of $11.9 million. Kazakhstan became the largest foreign market for Ukrainian winemakers where they supplied wine products worth $1.3 million. In addition, Germany remains one of the largest markets with supplies worth $1 million. At the same time, wine imports last year amounted to $146.7 million.
Thus, Ukraine is threatened with the loss of the wine products domestic market for the following reasons:
- a decrease in the volume of grape harvesting and processing for wine materials (in 2019, only 124,000 tons were processed for wine materials, and that is half the indicators of previous years: 271,000 tons in 2017 and 274,000 tons in 2018);
- limited purchasing power of the population;
- expansion of foreign-made goods on the Ukrainian market.
Ukraine and the EU are preparing amendments to the current FTA agreement for the next five years. Unofficially, negotiations on the revision have already started at the beginning of 2020.
