EU farm chief: Bloc close to ending Ukraine import standoff

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top farm official says that the bloc was on the cusp of ending a damaging internal standoff over a destabilizing glut of Ukraine farm imports by granting five eastern member states the right to temporarily ban the most contentious produce. Resolving the issue quickly would allow the EU to maintain a unified stance in the face of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said Tuesday after daylong talks among the 27 farm ministers that the EU is close to allowing Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania a temporary import ban on five farm products that make up the overwhelming mass of exports from Ukraine that have flooded their markets during the war.