The Cabinet of Ministers proposes that the Verkhovna Rada ratify the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Turkey, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“Improving working conditions for Ukrainian entrepreneurs means expanding export opportunities. Today the government will approve and submit to the parliament a bill on ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Turkey,” Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Tuesday.
According to the prime minister, duties on a significant number of Ukrainian goods, including 93% of industrial goods, will be canceled.
“Turkey is among our top five trading partners. Therefore, the Agreement creates new opportunities for Ukrainian business,” Shmyhal emphasized.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the Agreement provides for the abolition of import duties on about 93.4% of industrial goods and 7.6% of agricultural goods from Ukraine. After the end of the transition period of 3-7 years, Turkey will cancel import duties for another 1.5% of industrial goods and 28.5% of agricultural goods.
Ukraine, for its part, will cancel import duties on about 56% of industrial goods and 11.5% of agricultural goods.
After the expiration of the transition periods (2-5 years for industrial goods, 2-10 years for agricultural goods), Ukraine will abolish import duties for another 43.2% of industrial goods and 53.7% of agricultural goods.
In general, the Ministry of Economy added, the provisions of the Agreement cover trade in goods and services, the application of the provisions of the Pan-Euro-Med Convention to determine the origin of goods, intellectual property rights, the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, the abolition of technical barriers to trade, e-commerce, customs cooperation, the commercial presence of enterprises, and the application of safeguard measures.
After ratification by the parliaments of the countries, the Agreement will enter into force 2 months after the last party receives confirmation of the completion of domestic procedures.
Ukraine and Moldova will renew the Free Trade Agreement, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said.
“Despite the war we are implementing agreements of 2021. The draft law on the application of Pan-Euro-Mediterranean rules of origin was submitted to Parliament,” Shmyhal said in Twitter on Friday.
In turn, representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said the draft law approved on Friday “On the ratification of the Protocol between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Moldova on Free Trade Agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Moldova dated November 13 2003” will allow in bilateral trade between Ukraine and Moldova, when determining the origin of goods, to be guided by the provisions of the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin or alternative rules of origin of the said Regional Convention.
Ukraine and Canada will return to work on expanding the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and complete work on it in the coming weeks, the Ministry of Economy announced following an online meeting between First Deputy Prime Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko and Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion and Small Business Canada Mary Ng.
“During the negotiations, government representatives decided to return to work on expanding the FTA Agreement between Ukraine and Canada and complete developments over the coming weeks,” the ministry said on its website on Sunday.
According to Svyrydenko, Ukraine is counting on Canada’s support in overcoming the food crisis provoked by the blocking of Ukrainian exports through seaports.
She said that an important step towards Ukraine could be the abolition of trade duties on Ukrainian goods by Canada following the EU and the UK.
“This will help exporters increase the volume of exports of products and thereby strengthen the Ukrainian economy and the defense of our state,” Svyrydenko was quoted as saying in the press release of the ministry.
Ukraine and Vietnam will resume work on a free trade area agreement (FTA), Deputy Minister of Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture, Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka has said.
“We have agreed to resume work on the FTA agreement with Vietnam. Under the best case scenario, this year we will enter a formal negotiation process,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday following the first meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission with Vietnam in 2021.
He also said that Ukraine and Vietnam are completing the conclusion of interdepartmental agreements on veterinary medicine and plant quarantine.
“These contracts are at the final stage,” Kachka said.
He said that by the end of 2020, the trade turnover between Ukraine and Vietnam grew by 22.5%, to $644.65 million, and Ukraine’s export to this country over the past year rose by 92%, to $184.5 million.
“A large share of imports from Vietnam are electronics and mechanical equipment… The lion’s share of Ukrainian exports to Vietnam are grains,” the trade representative said.
Kachka also said that business surveys show the interest of business in the FTA with this country. As for Vietnam itself, it is interested in industrial and scientific cooperation: from technologies in leather processing, fertilizer production and titanium mining to cooperation in the field of space and aviation. In addition, this is about industrial cooperation and projects for the supply of railway equipment, trucks, compressor equipment, aircraft and aircraft equipment, he said.
