The European Commission awaits a final decision on the dispute between Ukraine and the EU on a temporary ban on export of round timber until the end of this year, as follows from the EU’s annual Association Implementation Report.
“Recent draft legal proposals which would introduce local content requirements in public procurement procedures are a cause of concern as they breach the equal treatment and non-discrimination principles of public procurement under the AA, the WTO and the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement,” the report says.
“Regarding trade defense activities, the recent proliferation of safeguard investigations launched by Ukraine have not always been carried out in strict adherence with criteria and standards,” according to the document.
“Following many years of uninterrupted growth favored by the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) established by the AA, bilateral trade in the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 decreased by around 11% as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU remains by far Ukraine’s biggest trading partner. Regarding Ukraine’s wood export ban, a longstanding bilateral trade-irritant, a bilateral arbitration panel under the AA has been established and a final ruling of the panel is expected still in 2020,” the EC said.
“With regard to the reform of the Ukrainian forest-based sector, including wood harvesting and trade and, in particular, wood legality, Ukraine authorities from the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources committed during a TSD (Trade and Sustainable Development) sub-committee meeting in October 2020, to the need for a separation of functions between the management of resources and control functions and thus a reorganization and distribution of responsibilities between control and inspection on the one hand, and wood harvesting and trade on the other,” the report states.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has begun collecting information and studying the electric car charging market, the committee said on its website.
It notes the intensive growth of the electric car market in recent years, while the market for commercial charging stations is also growing. In this regard, the AMCU starts monitoring it in order to control compliance with the legislation on the protection of economic competition.
“The purpose of this control is to determine the state of the competitive environment in the market and its assessment; to identify and determine the problems in the market that hinder the development of competition; to ensure compliance with legislation on the protection of economic competition; to prepare, if necessary, based on the results of such control, proposals for the implementation of measures aimed to develop competition,” the committee notes.
The AMCU called on current and potential market participants to provide information and considerations on possible economic, organizational, administrative and technical barriers that may prevent new companies from competing in the electric vehicle charging market.
As reported, Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said in November 2020 that Ukraine supports the use of ecological modes of transport in cities, therefore, as part of the National Transport Strategy until 2030, it plans to completely replace all urban public transport with electric one and create the appropriate infrastructure for this.
The competition for the election of the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) may begin in December this year, and taking into account the possible lockdown, it will be completed by spring 2021, Acting Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) Maksym Hryschuk has said.
In an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, Hryschuk said that the competition committee had already held a number of meetings. “When they decide on the regulations, they will announce the start of the competition. Perhaps it will be in December,” he said.
Answering the question on whether he will take part in the competition, Hryschuk said: “I still want to keep an intrigue. The competition has not yet been officially announced, so it is unethical to talk about participation in it.”
Speaking about when we can expect a new head of the SAPO, elected at the competition, he said that it takes time to submit documents and conduct three stages of the competition, and the situation with the epidemic should also be taken into account.
“I think it will be around January-February. And if a lockdown is introduced now, it may still drag on,” he said.
The full text of the interview will be published on the Interfax-Ukraine website in the public domain.
TK-Domashniy Tekstyl (TK-Home Textile), an operator in production and sale of home textiles in the structure of the trade and production group Textile-Contact, has signed the first significant contract for the supply of products to Lithuania for EUR 200,000, owner of Textile-Contact Oleksandr Sokolovsky said.
“The decrease in demand in the domestic market forces us to look for new sales channels for our products. Therefore, I am glad that TK-Domashniy Tekstyl has confidently started to enter the European market. If previously there were only small supplies to Poland and other countries, now the first serious contract has been signed with Lithuania,” Sokolovsky told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
He said that the first batch of mattresses, pillows and blankets has already been shipped for a large wholesale company from Lithuania, which works closely with both Lithuanian government agencies and leading hotels and restaurants. In the first half of 2021, it is planned to complete the entire delivery and conclude a new contract for a large amount.
Sokolovsky said that the implementation of such a contract became possible thanks to the receipt of the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 European quality certificate by a textile factory in Chernihiv (TK-DT Chernihiv).
Oeko-Tex Standard is an international system for testing and certification of products made of textile materials, which sets restrictions on the use of certain chemicals, it is recognizable by the buyer and serves as an additional confirmation of the quality of products for manufacturers.
According to Sokolovsky, another factor that contributed to the conclusion of the contract was the receipt of the EUR1 certificate, confirming the Ukrainian origin of the goods and exempting the buyer from import duties.
Sokolovsky said that such a certificate can only be obtained if Ukrainian raw materials were used in the manufacture of products, which was fully consistent with Textile-Contact.
According to him, more than 50 jobs were involved in the implementation of the contract, and in total 430 people work at TK-Domashniy Tekstyl (including three production factories in Chernihiv, Kyiv and Odesa).
“TK-Domashniy Tekstyl company is actively negotiating to start cooperation with representatives of other European countries. The pilot delivery of textile products of its own production to Lithuania served as a serious impetus in this direction,” Sokolovsky said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced the forthcoming visit of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to Ukraine in 2021, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
According to the minister, the visit of the President of Brazil to Ukraine should serve as an impetus for the development of the Ukrainian and Brazilian partnership. “It should open a new page in bilateral relations,” Kuleba said at the opening ceremony of the first Defense Industry Dialogue between Ukraine and Brazil in Kyiv.
The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that consultations with the Brazilian side had already shown the interest of Brazilian defense industry enterprises in establishing a dialogue with Ukraine. “Brazil conducts such a dialogue only with five countries: Argentina, the United States, Portugal, France and India,” Kuleba said. The minister said the beginning of the defense dialogue is a component of the priority area of the Foreign Ministry to open up new opportunities for Ukrainian companies and industry.
“We are starting the dialogue between associations of industrialists and entrepreneurs of the two countries, between space departments, we are actively preparing the regular meeting of the Ukrainian and Brazilian commission on trade and economic cooperation,” he said.
According to the minister, cooperation between Ukraine and Brazil should not be limited only to bilateral trade, but also provide for ambitious plans for joint entry into the markets of third countries, in particular in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. “This dialogue lays a solid foundation for mutually beneficial long-term cooperation between representatives of defense departments and enterprises of our two countries,” Kuleba said.
On Monday, the Civil Protection Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia decided to temporarily ban and restrict crossing the Croatian border from December 1 to December 15, 2020, the Ukrainian Embassy in Croatia said.
“The ban does not apply to citizens of Ukraine who have a valid residence permit in the EU countries and arrive in Croatia directly from the countries of the European Union that are on the green list of countries identified by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, have no signs of illness and have not been to close contact with a sick person,” the embassy said on the Facebook page on Monday. Citizens of Ukraine with a residence permit in the EU, who transited without delay through other EU countries to Croatian checkpoints, must prove at the border crossing that they were not detained in transit countries, and in this case, the ban from this decision does not apply on them.
“Other Ukrainian citizens who are sent from EU countries will be allowed to enter the Republic of Croatia upon presentation of a negative PCR test for SARS-CoV-2, taken no more than 48 hours before crossing the border (counting from the time of testing to arriving at the checkpoint), or with the mandatory passage of self-isolation before passing the appropriate PCR test in Croatia and receiving a negative result,” the embassy said.
Ukrainian citizens who permanently reside in Ukraine have the right to enter Croatia on exceptional grounds. In particular, these are medical workers, health researchers, care workers for the elderly; border guards; workers in the transport industry; diplomats, employees of international organizations, military personnel, police officers, humanitarian workers and civil protection persons in the performance of their duties; persons traveling in transit; persons traveling for study purposes; sailors; persons traveling for urgent personal or family reasons, business reasons or other economic interests.
The Ukrainian diplomatic institution said that such citizens of Ukraine as medical workers, researchers in the field of health, care workers for elderly people; sailors; persons traveling for urgent personal or family reasons, business reasons or have other economic interests will be allowed to enter Croatia if they have a negative PCR test result valid for 48 hours, or if they enter Croatia with mandatory self-isolation prior to passing the appropriate PCR test in Croatia and get negative.
“Persons traveling through Croatia must leave the country within 12 hours from the moment of entry. If there is a reason for entering Croatia, it is needed to register the intention on the website of the Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs https://entercroatia.mup.hr/ and print the registration number of the application, so such confirmation will speed up the crossing of the border, but it is not an entry permit from the Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs,” the embassy said.
The Ukrainian embassy said that when crossing the border and staying in Croatia, all persons are required to comply with epidemiological safety measures and general and special recommendations and instructions of the Croatian Institute of Public Health.
