The EU's decision to throttle trade in agricultural products with Ukraine will trigger big losses for the national economy this year and undermine efforts to plug the country into the bloc's single market, Agriculture Minister Vitalii Koval said Monday. The measure - approved by EU member states last week at the behest of big farming states - will take effect from 6 June and rolls back full trade liberalisation introduced after Russia’s full-scale invasion back in 2022. The new rules will reinstate 2017 tariff quotas on Ukrainian agricultural exports, a policy that will harm more than just the food industry. “What about the moral losses? This is not calculated in billions, but millions of Ukrainian citizens supporting integration into the EU,” Koval said during an appearance at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) in Brussels on Monday. Koval said that the war has decimated Ukraine's other major industries, such as chemicals and steel, leaving agriculture to account for 17% of the country’s GDP. That means that a return to pre-war tariff quotas with the EU will work out at losses of between €2.8 billion and €3.5 billion for Ukraine in 2025. But for the European Commission, the move to revert to old trade rules is just a temporary fix while negotiations continue over a longer-term trade framework between Kyiv and Brussels.