The system of grain export control guarantees proposed by Ukraine at a meeting of the Coordination Council under the European Commission came as a surprise to Slovakia, but after its testing and the transition period, Slovakia will be ready to resume imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, Slovakian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Jozef Bíreš said on Monday before the evening meeting of EU agricultural ministers in Brussels.

According to his information, the unilateral ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products adopted by Slovakia was a natural reaction to protect the national market from excessive imports of goods from Ukraine and a reaction to the lifting of restrictive measures by the European Commission.

"Ukraine today made a surprise in the form of some guarantees of control over grain imports based on licenses. I think this (presentation of intentions to introduce import controls by Ukraine) should have been sent in advance. The European Commission should have made some kind of transition period so that we could test this system, check whether it is effective and whether it is a guarantee to prevent uncontrolled imports," the Slovak minister said.

According to him, Slovakia will continue to unilaterally ban the import of Ukrainian grain until the system of guarantees on the part of Ukraine is assessed. The Slovak Ministry of Agriculture will also begin to study the effect of Ukrainian guarantees at the national level in cooperation with the financial department and customs.

"We will prepare all the logistics for verification. This will take maybe a month, maybe two months, because even there the conditions for some kind of mutual confirmation and decision-making vary from five days to a month. This means that every importer who receives a license from the Ukrainian side, must receive confirmation from the Slovak side," Bíreš explained.

According to Bíreš, negotiations between a coalition of five front-line countries - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania regarding a ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products are ongoing.

"Previously, the coalition professed the principle of unity. Bulgaria was the first to deviate from it. And Romania did not take appropriate measures," the Slovak minister said and added that Slovakia was surprised by the expansion of the list of Ukrainian agricultural products prohibited for import by Hungary.

Bíreš said that the introduced unilateral measures would not affect the transit of Ukrainian agricultural goods along the Solidarity Lanes. He referred to information from the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, who informed the European Commission that the introduced restrictive measures that were applied in the five front-line countries did not limit the transit of goods from Ukraine. Over the past five months they have even increased.

Commenting on the lawsuit filed by Ukraine with the World Trade Organization, the Slovak minister expressed surprise at the speed of Ukraine's actions.

According to him, Slovakia is in solidarity with Ukraine and wants to support it, but protecting the national market is a priority of any state.