President Gitanas Nausėda says that the European Commission (EC) is currently assessing which Russian and Belarusian agricultural products could be subject to differently high customs duties. According to the President, higher tariffs will reduce the flow of such products to Europe.

„We need a united European solution and they are already emerging, emerging as economic solutions to impose very high tariffs on agricultural products from Belarus and Russia, " Nausėda told reporters on Friday.

„Now the matter has moved to the European Commission, which is tasked with finding measures and foreseeing the spectrum of products to which this will apply,– he added.

The President mentioned that Russian and Belarusian products can only be properly restricted to such an extent, otherwise they will reach the Lithuanian market through the surrounding area.

„Sanctions šhave been tightened somewhat. It is true that some of them will have a rather limited impact. We, the Irish, can ban imports of Russian and Belarusian products and agricultural produce. But I am well aware, having been in the European Council, that if we ban it in some countries, they can enter the European Union market through other countries," he said.

ELTA recalls that the European Commission (EC) is proposing to impose higher duties on imports of Russian cereals.

According to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the aim is to prevent grain stolen in Ukraine from being fed to the EU. Russian grain must not destabilise the EU market and Russia must not benefit from the export of Russian goods, the chairwoman noted.

The EU wants Russia to be forced to give up the revenues it is using to finance its war in Ukraine by imposing "excessive tariffs" on grain and other goods entering the bloc.