OSW Commentary - Unequal competition. The consequences of the liberalisation of EU–Ukraine road carriage for Central Europe

the transport of Ukrainian exports to the EU, which was to be achieved by increasing the number of carriage operations in excess of the limits applied to date1 (see below). [...] The rights to perform cross-trade services are distributed on the basis of multilateral agreements concluded by way of negotiations carried out by the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) under the auspices of the International Transport Forum. [...] The rise in exports also resulted from the increased sale of Ukrainian-made goods on the Polish market and from the transit of Ukrainian products via the territory of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania to the Western European markets or, via Polish and Romanian sea ports, to the global market. [...] Although the Czech transport sector has expressed its increasing concern about the expansion of Ukrainian carriers, the magnitude of the problem is not great because this country does not border Ukraine and in the Czech Republic the freight forwarding sector is not as significant as it is in other states of the region. [...] OSW Commentary NUMBER 587 6 Searching for a long-term solution An acceleration in the westward shift of Ukrainian trade is a consequence of the Russian invasion and is also the only way to sustain the operation of the Ukrainian economy.