The original ban was introduced in 2023 to protect Hungarian farmers from cheap Ukrainian imports flooding the market.
Hungary has reinstated the ban on food imports from Ukraine after the new government “unfortunately” allow obstacles to pass.
The ban, which covers about 20 types of agricultural products, was introduced in 2023 after the government of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared a state of emergency due to the deterioration of Ukraine’s conflict economy.
Budapest said cheap Ukrainian imports flooded EU border markets after Brussels lifted tariffs, undercutting Hungarian farmers and destabilizing the agricultural sector.
While exports were allowed, imports to the Hungarian market were restricted, and the ban remained in place even after the EU replaced its temporary duty-free system with a trade agreement last year.
However, shortly after Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s Tisza party defeated Orban’s Fidesz in the recent election, the new government ended the state of emergency, directly leading to the end of the trade restrictions associated with it.
Following pressure from Hungary’s main farmers’ union and reports that several shipments of grain had already crossed the border, Budapest struggled to restore sanctions. On Friday, the government issued an order to reinstate the ban, followed by a post on X from Magyar. to confirm that Hungary “bans the import of agricultural products from Ukraine.”
“The restrictions were lifted due to legal errors,” a government spokesman told Euractiv, claiming parliamentarians were going through nearly 1,000 decrees inherited from the previous government and the import ban was. “Unfortunately it has not been considered.”
Minister of Agriculture Szabolcs Bona described the deficiency as a “Big legal trap for Hungarian farmers,” and promised to be the government “will not allow Ukrainian or any other imported product to endanger the lives of Hungarian farmers.”
Poland and Slovakia also maintain restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural imports from Hungary, despite opposition from Brussels.
The European Commission has said that the ban is illegal because trade policy is under EU jurisdiction, and last year is reported taken legal action against the country, although none followed. Karin Karlsbro, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on EU trade with Ukraine, told Euractiv that. “deep regret” Hungary’s decision to maintain “prohibition of illegal importation.”
Kiev has not yet commented. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly criticized the ban.
While Magyar is campaigning for closer ties with the EU, several measures point to continuity with Orban. Magyar has opposed the acceleration of Ukraine’s membership of the European Union and kept Hungary out of the EU’s latest funding program for Ukraine.
However, he indicated that the new EU aid package for Ukraine will not be is blocked and softening the government’s tone on social issues by appointing Judit Lannert – who the media has called Hungary’s. “The first LGBT activist” – as the minister of education.
