Ukraine and Israel signed bilateral documents on cooperation in agriculture, economics, education, culture, as well as youth and sports. “A series of Ukrainian-Israeli documents were signed in the presence of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu,” the presidential press service reported on Monday.
Thus, Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Olha Trofimtseva and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Ukraine Joel Lyon signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the sphere of agriculture between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the State of Israel.
In addition, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the State of Israel Hennadiy Nadolenko and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Ukraine Joel Lyon signed an Agreement between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education of the State of Israel as regards facilitating the study of the Hebrew language in the educational institutions of Ukraine and the study of the Ukrainian language in the educational institutions of the State of Israel.
In addition, the ambassadors of the two states signed a Program of Cooperation in the spheres of education, culture, youth and sports between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the State of Israel for 2019-2022.
State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Oleksiy Perevezentsev and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Ukraine Joel Lyon signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and the Israeli Patent Office of the Ministry of Justice of the State of Israel.
AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION, ECONOMICS, EDUCATION, ISRAEL, SPORTS, UKRAINE
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Kyiv on August 18-20 to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, The Times of Israel said. According to the publication, Netanyahu is set to fly to Ukraine for a two-day visit less than a month before the elections to the 22nd Knesset. In Kyiv, Netanyahu will meet with Zelensky and visit the Babi Yar (Babyn Yar) Holocaust Memorial Center.
As reported, Netanyahu in April congratulated Zelensky over the phone on his victory in the presidential elections in Ukraine.
On January 21, Ukraine and Israel signed an agreement on a free trade area (FTA), according to which Israel abolishes about 80% of import duties for Ukrainian industrial goods and more than 9% for agricultural goods. At the same time, Ukraine abolishes about 70% of import duties for Israeli industrial products and more than 6% for agricultural goods.
At that time, Netanyahu welcomed the “strong” Israeli-Ukrainian relations. “These ties have deep historical and cultural roots,” he said.
On July 11, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ratified an international free trade agreement between Ukraine and Israel.
On August 7, Zelensky signed bill No. 0223 on ratification of the FTA agreement into law.
Ukraine’s parliament, has ratified the international agreement on free trade between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the State of Israel.
Some 230 lawmakers voted for corresponding bill No. 0223 at a plenary session of parliament on Thursday.
Ukraine can join India, Israel, and Thailand and become another major platform for the rapidly growing industry of clinical trials of new drugs, James Peyer, managing partner of the U.S. biotechnology company Apollo Ventures, has said. “Clinical trials can be carried out (in Ukraine) with the same level of professionalism, with the same level of effectiveness as in the United States and Europe but without their high costs,” he said at the Ukraine House Davos health panel.
As reported earlier, bill No. 4074 on ensuring public access to the results of preclinical study and clinical trials of medicines was passed into law by the Ukrainian parliament in September 2018.
At present, about 200 clinical drug trials are underway in Ukraine. At the same time, in the past two years, the trend toward a decrease in the number of clinical trials has subsided.
Ukraine and Israel will sign a free trade area (FTA) agreement at the end of November, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said after a meeting with new ambassador of Israel to Ukraine Joel Lion in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“The document will significantly expand our economic cooperation and will increase trade, which now amounts to $1 billion a year,” the head of government said on his Facebook page.
Groysman also said that this month in Kyiv there will be a Ukrainian-Israeli innovative summit, the participants of which will be representatives of about 50 enterprises working in the field of high technologies.
“We consider cooperation in the sphere of innovations to be one of the most promising,” the Ukrainian prime minister said.
As reported, Ukraine and Israel completed negotiations on signing a FTA agreement in April and intend to sign it by the end of 2018. Early August, the sides finished a legal reconciliation of the text of the FTA agreement. The next step in preparing the agreement for signing is the translation of the agreed text into Ukrainian and Hebrew.
From the moment the document enters into force, Israel intends to abolish 80% of duties on industrial goods, as well as a number of agricultural products – within quotas. Import duties on the agricultural products specified in the agreement will be completely canceled during the transition periods for three, five and seven years. Partial liberalization is envisaged for a separate category of goods.
Ukraine, in turn, intends to open 70% of the industrial goods market for Israeli producers, as well as abolish duties on a number of agricultural products immediately after the entry into operation of the agreement, for some of them within three or five years. In particular, Ukraine plans to reduce tariffs for certain seasonal vegetables and fruits from Israel.
Israel will be the 46th country, with which Ukraine signs the FTA agreement.
Ukraine and Israel seek to boost goods flow in the coming five years to $2 billion a year, while last year the figure grew by 14.7% compared with 2016, reaching $772.5 million, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said. “I met with Israeli Minister of the Economy and Industry Eli Cohen and agreed to increase the trade flow to $ 2 billion in the next five years,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, the countries also intend to develop cooperation in the field of innovation and high technologies.
Kubiv also recalled that Ukraine and Israel intend to sign a free trade agreement by the end of this year.
