Amendments to Draft Law of Ukraine No. 13134 submitted for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy "On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine Regarding Expanding Patient Access to Medicines Subject to Purchase by a Person Authorized to Make Purchases in the Field of Healthcare by concluding managed access agreements," which establish duties on the export of soybeans and rapeseed from Ukraine, are discriminatory against small and medium-sized producers, are aimed at increasing the profits of processors at the expense of small and medium-sized farmers, and violate the Association Agreement with the EU for the following reasons.

Small and most medium-sized farmers cannot export independently due to the small volume of raw materials they have, so they will not be able to take advantage of the exemption from duties if they export independently, and traders will be forced to lower their purchase prices.

Exporting through agricultural cooperatives is also not an option because the cooperative movement in Ukraine isn't really developed. This is because the Tax Code doesn't have rules about exempting patronage dividends from income tax, which is something you see in all countries where agricultural cooperation has really taken off.

Ukraine has already built enough processing capacity to process all available raw materials, and the only reason this is not happening is the unwillingness of processors to offer competitive purchase prices.

The Agreement on Cooperation with the EU does not allow the introduction of new permanent export duties, but despite the authors' claims that they are temporary, the 5% duty is not limited in time.

The introduction of these regulations will result in a reduction in the income of small and medium-sized farmers due to a fall in purchase prices. In the medium term, this will lead to a reduction in the area under soybean and rapeseed cultivation, as already happened after the introduction of the “soybean amendments” in 2017.

The UAC calls on the members of the Tax Policy Committee not to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors and to reject the “oilseed” amendments.