Czech farmers lead fresh EU border protests over Ukraine, LatAm trade deals

BRUSSELS — Farmers in the Czech Republic spearheaded a new wave of protests against EU trade policy on Thursday, rallying at border crossings and driving tractors onto roads in a show of defiance against agricultural imports from Ukraine and South America.

Demonstrators from Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia joined in solidarity, amplifying demands for stricter controls on foreign goods.

“The association agreement with Ukraine will increase the volume of cheap, lower-quality grain and oilseeds on the European market,” said Martin Pýcha, head of the Czech Agrarian Chamber, referring to a looming update to the European Union’s trade deal with Ukraine. “We’re not against trade with Ukraine, but any deal must be made on a fair basis.”

For South American exporters, a few blockades on Czech roads hardly register. For Ukraine, on the other hand, the stakes are much higher.

With its emergency trade access to the EU set to expire in June, Kyiv is rushing to reassure its Eastern European neighbors that its agricultural exports won’t flood their markets — and that its hopes of deeper European integration remain intact.

Their anxiety stems from the massive influx of Ukrainian grain into Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania in 2022 and early 2023, when Russia’s naval blockade cut off Black Sea shipping routes and forced exports onto overland corridors. With limited capacity to process or reexport these goods, border countries saw stockpiles build up, triggering unilateral bans from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia as well as EU-wide emergency measures.

Now that commercial traffic has largely resumed in the Black Sea, Ukrainian grain is flowing to Spain — the EU’s top buyer — with only marginal volumes going to markets in the east of the bloc.

Still, Kyiv isn’t taking any chances. To prove it can handle any export surge responsibly following the EU trade deal update, the government has set up self-imposed export licenses and quotas for staple goods. The measures aim to reassure its anxious neighbors that Ukraine won’t flood nearby countries with cheap agricultural products.

Skepticism at the border

So far, that pledge hasn’t won over everyone in the region.

The Hungarian government, alongside Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, is pushing Brussels to reintroduce the tighter prewar quotas that once restricted Ukrainian exports. Hungarian Agriculture Minister István Nagy has argued that even the current reduced volumes risk overwhelming domestic producers.

“We want to return to normality — to the prewar agreements,” Nagy said on Facebook. “This market opening, this EU-Ukraine trade deal, has completely destroyed the internal market. In both volume and quality, it represents a completely different category: It’s cheap, and it has crushed prices, making it impossible for European farmers to compete.”

Such a rollback would be devastating for Ukraine’s struggling economy. Domestic farm groups warn that ending duty-free access to the EU could cost the country billions of euros in output, government revenues and worker salaries. 

Ukrainian agricultural economist Oleg Nivievskyi is among those who question the Hungarian fears, arguing that trade data contradicts Budapest’s claims of depressed EU farm prices.

“Look at sugar — our exports helped stabilize EU markets during a bad harvest,” Nivievskyi said. “Without them, prices would have skyrocketed.”

He said the same of other commodities, calling Ukrainian exports a buffer that keeps supply chains stable and food prices lower across the EU, and adding that Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy is a bigger threat to the bloc’s competitiveness than Ukrainian imports.

“I don’t think Ukrainian exports are destroying the EU farming sector,” Nivievskyi said. “It’s the CAP that undermines competitiveness. What we have right now in EU farming — I wouldn’t call it communism, but it’s definitely central planning.”

Smooth path to accession? Not so fast.

The timing of the dispute is critical. The EU’s temporary Autonomous Trade Measures allowing Ukrainian goods to enter the bloc duty-free expire in June, and the Commission faces a tricky balancing act: How to back Ukraine’s war-battered economy without inciting political backlash in eastern member countries already jittery over cheap imports.

The situation is further complicated by shifting policy in Washington, where President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to push for an end to the war on terms that could include Ukraine’s ceding territory to Russia. The U.S. stance has amplified concerns in Kyiv about retaining solid access to the EU market, with Ukraine officials warning that losing trade privileges would undermine the country’s fragile economic recovery and hurt its goal of joining the EU.

Nivievskyi also fears the debate could damage Ukraine’s accession talks. “I hope the European Commission acts as a good moderator in this process because it has to balance different voices from member states and convert them into policy. But it’s clear that some governments will use trade disputes as leverage.”

For now, Brussels seems undeterred.

European Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, visiting Kyiv this week, promised a “smooth transition” once the ATMs end. 

“We remain fully committed to swift implementation of mutual trade liberalization,” he told the Interfax agency.

“As you know, this will be a very delicate task for us, given the sensitivity of certain products to the markets of our member countries and, of course, the concerns of our farmers.”

This story has been updated with actuality on Thursday’s protests.