Ukraine Sues EU Neighbours due Russian Invasion caused Grain Crisis...

Ukraine Sues EU Neighbours due Russian Invasion caused Grain Crisis

Ukraine has filed lawsuits to the World Trade Organization against its EU neighbors of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over their refusal to lift bans on Ukrainian agricultural products, something which Ukraine's trade representative describes as legally wrong. Now, this is in response to the three EU countries announcing last Friday that they would impose their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports after the European Commission made the decision not to extend an existing grain ban covering five central and south eastern EU countries and that's because, despite the goodwill and cooperation between Ukraine and EU member states since Russia's invasion last year, agricultural exports have proven to be a particularly thorny issue and show how Ukrainian integration into the European Union comes with some significant challenges and difficulties. For some context on this grain dispute then back in June 2022, the European Union lifted tariffs and other restrictions on imports from Ukraine in response to the war, meaning that it was cheaper and easier for Ukraine to export goods to the European Union. However, five EU countries neighbouring or close to Ukraine; Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria claimed that as a result large quantities of Ukrainian grain had flooded across their borders undercutting local farmers and distorting markets. In response, the EU agreed earlier this year to allow those five countries to restrict agricultural imports from Ukraine until the 15th of September.

Then when that day eventually came the European Commission decided not to extend the restrictions after Ukraine pledged to ensure that exports from the country weren't creating a tsunami in neighbouring countries. Nevertheless three countries Poland, Slovakia and Hungary have since announced their own unilateral restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural imports in defiance of the European Commission, with them saying that they're simply acting in the interests of their farmers and economies. Now the exact details of the bans and restrictions vary by country with Slovakia just extending the EU's previous bans on four types of grain while Poland added new bans for flour and feed and Hungary goes the furthest, banning 24 Ukrainian products including meat, eggs and honey, none of which were part of the original bans. Ukraine's trade representative responded to this by saying that he believes that Hungary is making a political statement that it wants to block trade with Ukraine as well as disregard Brussels entirely. So not only have these unilateral bans frustrated Ukraine to the point that they're taking it to the World Trade Organization they've also fractured the EU with the European Commission stating repeatedly that it's not the job of European member states to make trade policy for the wider bloc and other member states including France and Germany, accusing the three eastern EU countries of part time solidarity.

India and Canada Diplomatic Clash

Canada and India are in the midst of a diplomatic feud with the two countries expelling diplomats after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that there were credible allegations that the Indian government may have been behind the assassination of a Canadian citizen: Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. Nijjar was a prominent Sikh activist and khalistani separatist meaning he advocated for a separate homeland for Sikhs in the Punjab region. This naturally put him at odds with the Indian government who included him on the Home ministry's list of individual terrorists and in 2020 the Indian National Investigation Agency accused him of trying to radicalise Sikh communities across the world in favour of the creation of Khalistan. Now, on the 18th of June, Nijjar was shot and killed by two masked gunmen in the car park of a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada, shocking the Sikh community in the country and the wider world. Here's what Justin Trudeau had to say about the murder on Monday this week.

Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link. Between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. (Justin Trudeau)

Trudeau then went on to say that any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. Canada's foreign affairs minister would later announce that an Indian diplomat was being expelled from the country. Then India in return expelled a senior Canadian diplomat and rejected the allegations as absurd and motivated. Ultimately then this represents the further fraying of ties between India and Canada, particularly over the activity of Sikh activists in Canada which has the largest Sikh population outside of the Indian state of Punjab.

UN Reaffirms Sustainable Goals

Ahead of the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a Sustainable Development Goals summit at which he called world Hunger a shocking stain on humanity and an epic human rights violation. More widely though, the summit was designed to redouble efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, which are 17 goals adopted in 2015 by UN Member States who committed to achieving them by 2030. However the UN chief said at this week's summit that only around 15% of those goals are on track. Unfortunately, progress towards goals including those aiming to eliminate hunger and poverty have been stagnant and in some cases even reversing. Speaking about this Guterres said that it's an indictment of every single one of us that millions of people are starving in this day and age. As a result of the summit, the UN General Assembly adopted a political declaration reaffirming countries commitments to the 2030 Agenda and acknowledging the necessity of taking immediate measures to scale up efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ukraine Sues EU Neighbours due Russian Invasion caused Grain Crisis, Canada and India Diplomatic Clash, UN Reaffirms Sustainable Goals