Takac: Slovakia Ready to Extend Ban on Ukrainian Agricultural Commodities Import

Brussels, November 20 (TASR-correspondent) - Slovakia is ready to extend the ban on the import of agricultural commodities from Ukraine if the European Commission (EC) doesn't find a suitable way to deal with the surplus of Ukrainian grain in Europe, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD) stated following the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on Monday. Takac further said that before the meeting he talked to European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechovski and he also used his first working stay in Brussels for negotiations with his counterparts from the Visegrad Four (V4) countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) and Austria, as well as from countries neighbouring Ukraine. The minister specified that the topic of importing Ukrainian grain into the EU resonated across all meetings. This issue wasn't the subject of official negotiations, but everyone addressed it during individual meetings. According to Takac, this is a big problem from the point of view of Slovakia, which otherwise supports the transport of Ukrainian grain through transit corridors to third countries. am/mcs