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Manager: This is petty – VG

BUDGET FRIENDS: Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) have received support for their budget from Audun Lysbakken’s SV. But initially they voted against customs freedom for Ukraine.

In consideration of Norwegian farmers, the government will not remove customs duties on goods from war-ravaged Ukraine. But they must achieve this!

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iconThis is a leader. The leader expresses the position of VG. VG’s political editor replies to the leader.

It was this summer that the Ukrainian authorities, in a letter to Norway, asked us to remove customs duties on Ukrainian products and start trade with the country.

And an almost united opposition in the Storting is backing the proposal.

All that’s needed is for us to give him this handshake. What’s left of manufacturing in the war-torn country is important in getting the wheels turning.

But what did the Norwegian government do?

They said no. The Center Party is clearly not ashamed of how far it is willing to go to protect Norwegian agriculture. And for less understandable reasons, they received support from SV, so that the proposal failed.

BIG AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY: Ukraine produces, among other things, large quantities of wheat and sunflower oil. The image shows farm workers taking a break from the sunflower harvest in September.

He will return to the Storting on Tuesday.

This time the solidarity party SV must be able to vote in favour. Everything else will be awkward.

Not because customs freedom will be beneficial to the hard-hit country.

Last year Norway imported goods from Ukraine worth about 700 million Norwegian kroner. Of these, only NOK 40 million worth of goods were subject to customs duties. These are mainly agricultural products and some textile products.

It is the big package Ukraine in which billions are given, which is the most important move.

But it is still the right signal to say yes to Ukraine on customs.

Other aid must necessarily be given through various bureaucratic channels. Duty-free, on the other hand, directly helps businesses.

The EU has removed all customs duties on goods exported from Ukraine for one year, which can be extended. The United States, Great Britain, Canada and many other countries have also granted duty-free access to various goods.

While in one of the richest countries in the world, where such freedom from customs will have no negative impact on the economy, we have therefore not been able to achieve this.

According to it International Monetary Fund Ukraine’s value creation will decline by 35% this year. While prices go up by 20 percent.

But it is therefore easier for the Center Party to provide billions in support from the state treasury than for farmers to have to compete with agricultural products worth tens of millions.

This is perhaps not so surprising. But that SV entered to hold customs, this is more strange.

They may feel constrained by the budget deal they have with the government. If so, they should threaten to run over the Labor Party and the Center Party into backing down.

Why the government needs to change its mind. Only then will they avoid the embarrassment of being run over by the opposition.

Because the solution cannot be that the richest country in the world does not stand up in solidarity here. It would just be too embarrassing.

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