Agro-industrial associations which represent interests of agricultural producers and grain trading companies, emphase on the necessity to reject the draft law No. 3658 “On bidding of export duties on rapeseed” and No. 4693 “On bidding of export duties on soybeans, shredded or not shredded».

It is exactely the appeal of farmers towards Grygoriy Kaletnìk, the Head of the Parliamental Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations and Vitaliy Khomutynnik, the Head of the Parliamental Committee on Tax and Customs policy. According to experts, adoption of these draft laws will lead to significant losses by agricultural producers.

Thus, the above mentioned draft laws envisage establishing rates of export duties on rapeseed at the level of 15% of the customs value, but not less than 30 EUR/t, as well as soybeans – at the level of 15% of the customs value, but not less than 35 EUR/t.

Note that in 2013 Ukraine exported 2.35 mln t of rapeseed amounted in 1.197 bln USD, as well as 1.5 mln t of soybeans amounted in 742 mln USD. Under the conditions of establishing the export duty at the level of 15%, faremrs’ loss will be 291 mln USD (3.3 bln UAH at the current exchange rate).

"Currently there is no objective need to implement additional fiscal stimulus, especially for producers of rapeseed, which are the main supplier of raw materials for the EU biofuels market. Adoption of the above-mentioned draft laws will lead to significant financial losses for the domestic producers of soybeans and rapeseeds, and along with this, losing the competitive position on the international arena”, - said Taras Kachka, the Vice President on strategic development of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.

"This will have extremely negative impact on the financial position of agricultural producers which suffered significant losses from the decline of the world and Ukrainian prices for grain and oil crops in 2013/14 marketing year", - stressed Volodemyr Klymenko, the President of the Ukrainian Grain Association.

"This step will put farmers in extremely difficult situation, because they finance harvesting late cereals and oil crops by sales of rapeseeds. In its turn, the funds obtained from the sale of soybeans have been usually used for payments on bank loans, rent of agricultural land, and other mandatory payments", - added Gennadiy Novikov, the Head of the Agrarian Union of Ukraine.

Inna Ostradchuk, the Deputy Director on Legal Affairs of the Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" said that profitability in crops production amounted only to 11.3% in 2013. "Establishment of export duty on rapeseed and soybeans – export-oriented crops, growing of which covers the unprofitability of other crops, will relieve farmers incentives to develop agricultural production, lead to worsening indicators of the gross production in agriculture and reducing the country’s  export potential”, - stressed Inna Ostradchuk.

Experts also add that in the case of adoption of the draft laws No.3658 and No.4693, a negative reaction from trade partners of Ukraine should be expected, taking into account the commitments to the World Trade Organization, as well as the parameters of Agreement on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU.

The letter addressed to Grygoriy Kaletnìk and Vitaliy Khomutynnik with request to support farmers through rejection of the draft lawss No.3658 and No.4693 and to invite representatives of agricultural industry at the meeting of the Parliamental Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations where the draft laws are going to be considered, is signed by: Bernard Casey, the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Volodymyr Klimenko, the President of the Ukrainian Grain Association, Leonid Kozachenko, the President of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, Volodymyr Lapa, the Director General of the Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club", and Gennadiy Novikov, the Head of the Agrarian Union of Ukraine.