Food retailers Metro C&C, Auchan, Silpo, Novus and Billa have asked Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy to support government’s bill No. 4614 introducing parallel imports. According to a letter of the retailers, parallel import foresees import of original goods in parallel with import of products of the right holder and distributors.
“Under the model of parallel import, consumers will have access to lower prices… In this regard, the adoption of bill No. 4614 will improve the level of competition and ensure free trade in the original goods on the customs territory of Ukraine,” CEO of Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine Olivier Langlet said.
According to the explanatory note to the bill posted on the parliament’s website, it is proposed to expand the list of objects of intellectual property rights that are protected after importation into the customs territory of Ukraine, adding the item “brand names.”
In addition, the bill changes the definition of counterfeit goods. In this category, it is proposed to place goods that violate trademark rights and pirated goods (illegal copies of copyrighted goods). The customs clearance of these goods will be suspended at the border.
According to the explanatory note, measures to protect intellectual property rights will not apply to “parallel imports” and to goods moving across the customs border of Ukraine in transit.
Grossdorf agrochemical company (Cherkasy region) in Sarata (Odesa region) has launched new production of liquid carbomide-ammonium mixture fertilizers with a capacity of 60,000 tonnes per year. According to a company press release, with the opening of the plant its capacity in the area of liquid fertilizers production rose to 410,000 tonnes per year.
“Grossdorf receives raw materials from Europe and Central Asia, but transportation of these raw materials for production of carbomide-ammonium mixture from the central regions to the southern regions is expensive. Therefore we built a production base and a raw materials storage base in Sarata. The plans for 2019 are to diversify the markets for the supply of raw materials,” the release says.
According to Grossdorf Commercial Director Serhiy Ruban, the capacities launched will allow the company to provide the entire Odesa region with carbomide-ammonium fertilizers, and also consider the possibility of exporting fertilizers from the production unit in Sarata to Moldova.
Grossdorf (Cherkasy) was established in 2016. It is engaged in production, import, transportation of fertilizers, as well as providing services for the introduction of liquid ammonia. The company’s core business is the supply of basic fertilizers for precision farming.
FERTILIZERS, GROSSDORF, LIQUID CARBOMIDE-AMMONIUM, ODESA REGION, PLANT, PRODUCTION
Ukrenergo plans at the end of 2018 to sign an operational agreement on simultaneous operation in the Ukraine-Moldova control block with Moldelectrica, the press service of the Ukrainian company has reported. “The operational agreement is a contractual basis for the parallel operation of the transmission system operators, which is being worked out in the framework of the action plan for the synchronization of the energy systems of Ukraine and Moldova with ENTSO-E … The final signing of the operation agreement is scheduled for the end of 2018,” the report says.
On September 14 Ukrenergo and Moldelectrica signed three new provisions from the future agreement, and in general 17 provisions are already ready.
“The operating agreement significantly simplifies our contractual base and brings it into full compliance with the European standards. After its final signing, we will be able to cooperate with Moldelectrica according to ENTSO-E rules. To date, the major part of the plan of measures for the development of this important document has already been completed,” Yuriy Kudrenko, the head of the department for ensuring the parallel operation of Ukrenergo’s power systems, said.
The Export-Credit Agency could start operating in the fourth quarter of 2018 only if the budget for 2018 is reviewed and the financing is expanded by UAH 80 million, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said.
“To take legal and organizational measures [to start the Export-Credit Agency], an additional amount of UAH 80 million is required… We insist in the past six months that the specified amount is provided for in the budget amendments for 2018,” he told the press conference on Tuesday, answering a question of Interfax-Ukraine.
He also recalled that the national budget for the current year provides funding of UAH 200 million to the Export-Credit Agency. Earlier, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade estimated the need for additional financing at UAH 146 million.
Former Ukraine’s trade representative Natalia Mykolska earlier said that she expects that first pilot products of the Export-Credit Agency will be seen at the end of 2018.
Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry on Tuesday presented Ukraine’s export brand “Trade with Ukraine,” using which Ukrainian goods and services will be promoted to international markets. An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the brand was designed under order of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Export Promotion Office of Ukraine with support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The graphic part of the brand is a big letter “U” of blue color with a small circle in the upper part, in which the letters “ua” are inscribed, as well as the slogan “Trade with Ukraine”. At the same time, the first part of the slogan can be transformed depending on the industry, for example: for food industry – “Taste with Ukraine”, machine building – “Manufacture with Ukraine” and creative sphere – “Create with Ukraine”.
“For the first time, Ukrainian goods and services from different sectors will be united by a single visual and emotional context for the promotion of the Ukrainian economy and export development,” the brand’s developers said. During the presentation, the brand platform and the exhibition brand book of Ukraine were also presented.
“The mission of the export brand is to create a powerful brand of Ukraine as a reliable trading partner in the world. This is a platform for building and strengthening the positions of Ukrainian exporters at the global level,” First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv said at the press conference entitled “The launch of the export brand of Ukraine.” According to him, the rating and quality of export brands in the world are interdependent with the export positions of the countries.
“The better the country is known as an exporter, the higher is its rating as the country,” the deputy prime minister said.
The brand’s developers are convinced that the export brand is an important part of the brand of Ukraine, and forms 50% of the country’s brand, influencing on three of its six indicators: goods and services, business climate and tourism. The target groups of the export brand are Ukrainian manufacturers of goods and services, traders, business associations; foreign manufacturing companies, foreign business media; embassies and governments.
Some 66 enterprises have been selected to participate in the Energy Efficiency Project of GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) and Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine. “A total of 66 enterprises have already been selected, which will receive technical support to identify and implement pilot energy efficiency projects,” First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maksym Nefyodov wrote.
According to him, among them 19 enterprises of the baking industry, 15 – from the dairy sector, 19 – machine building, as well as 11 enterprises for the production of nonmetallic building materials and two enterprises from other industries.
The list includes, among others, Kyivkhlib, Kyivsky BKK, Kupiansk Canned Milk Factory, Kaniv branch of the Cheese Club, Starokostiantynivsky Dairy Plant, Zhytomyr Butter Plant, EthnoProduct, JV Vitmark-Ukraine, Galca Ltd, Dnipropolymermash, Corum Druzhkivka Machine-Building Plant, Kharkiv Machine-Building Plant FED, IC Pozhmashina, Umanfermmash and OLIS.
In addition, the Kharkiv Tile Factory, Kerameya, the Kyiv Combine of the Construction Industry, the two branches of the SBK, the Tavriya Construction Company, the Temp Plant and the Zhytomyr Roofing and Insulating Materials Plant were selected.
Chairman of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Serhiy Savchuk said, commenting on the project on the agency’s website, that as part of the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU, one of the articles of which foreseen energy efficiency audit for large enterprises once in four years or the switch to the energy efficiency management, a bill on energy efficiency has been drawn up.
According to a posting on the website of GIZ, the project to advice enterprises in the energy efficiency sphere was started in 2017 and will last until 2021. GIZ said that the energy efficiency potential, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises, is 30-50%.
