The economist assessed the new EU duties on agricultural products from the Russian Federation

It is difficult for the European Union (EU) to compete with agricultural products from Russia and Belarus, the association is trying to support producers by imposing duties, but this leads to inflation. Maxim Chirkov, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Economics at Moscow State University, said this in an interview with Izvestia on May 15.

The European Parliament's (EP) Committee on Trade has approved the European Commission's (EC) proposal to increase tariffs by 50% on imports of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus that were previously exempt from customs duties.

"This is also being done to support domestic, European agricultural producers. It is difficult for the industry to compete with agricultural products from Belarus and Russia, as production in the union state of the Russian Federation and Belarus is much more cost—effective," he said.

The economist added that the increase in duties from the EU can be considered as an unfriendly step.

"This will lead to higher inflation in the European Union. The situation with inflation is not very good there anyway. This is classic protectionism. In Europe, there are fewer and fewer funds to support their own agricultural producers," Chirkov said.

He added that almost all agricultural production in Europe is sponsored through subsidies.

"In order to make its production more competitive, the European Union restricts supplies from third countries. The problem is that you can protect your producers, but food prices for European citizens will rise. And this growth will be in the tens of percent, it can be said unequivocally," concluded Chirkov.

Limited vision: what has the European Union included in the 17th package of sanctions

Even politicians from the countries of the association found it relatively weak.

On January 28, the EC announced plans to impose duties on the remaining agricultural products from Russia and Belarus, which had not been affected by tariffs before. It was noted that the tariffs would support the growth of domestic production and the EU fertilizer industry, which suffered during the energy crisis, and would also allow for the diversification of supplies from third countries.

On May 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western agricultural producers cheat when working in foreign markets. For example, he noted that hidden subsidies create huge preferences for Western enterprises, including in the Russian market.