German conservatives push for national ban on Russian agricultural imports

5 months ago 19

The conservative CDU/CSU group in the German Bundestag is pushing for a complete ban on all agriculture and food imports from Russia and Belarus as a way of weakening Russia’s war effort.

Russia finances its war against Ukraine with exports from the agricultural and food industry, the CDU’s agricultural expert, Albert Stegemann, told dpa.

“This must be prevented. Higher tariffs on Russian grain are not enough,” he stressed.

The CDU, which, according to ntv, is currently polling at 31% of the predicted vote, is increasingly asserting its claim to govern and shape Germany’s political agenda, closing in on the three-way governing coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP), which is polling at a combined 33% – a trend that has prompted CDU leader Friedrich Merz to call for early elections several times in recent weeks.

With this proposal, the CDU is addressing two of its election priorities simultaneously.

On the one hand, the import ban reflects a tough line on Russia, as the party argues that the SPD has been too close to Putin in the past and has not done enough to support Ukraine.

In addition, the CDU, like its centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) counterparts, is focusing its message on supporting the agricultural sector, which has been a hot topic in Germany, especially following the recent EU-wide wave of farmer protests.

At the same time, the European Commission is considering imposing tariffs on Russian agricultural imports to slow their growth, arguing that these are not sanctions. Food and fertilisers have so far been exempted from EU trade restrictions to not disrupt global food security.

Meanwhile, a majority of EU lawmakers in the European Parliament on 12 March called on imposing a complete ban on Russian agriculture and food imports into the EU.

However, it is unclear whether such unilateral national measures, as proposed by the CDU, align with EU rules in the eyes of the Commission.

While the Commission has previously found such trade restrictions illegal, it decided in February to investigate Latvia, which decided to take the first step in February and is currently refusing such imports.

While Latvia imported more than 260,000 tonnes of grain from Russia between July and December 2023, Germany bought just 3,700 tonnes.

“We in Germany and Europe are not dependent on Russian grain,” Stegemann stressed.

The CDU motion, which is expected to be discussed in the Bundestag on Thursday, calls on the government to prepare the option of an import ban if no agreement can be reached at the EU level.

(Kjeld Neubert | Euractiv.de)