Ukraine expects to start free trade negotiations with the United States during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko has said.
“During the president’s visit to the United States, we want to reach an agreement to start free trade negotiations with the United States,” Liubchenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, Ukraine has carried out preliminary work to expand the free trade area (FTA) with Canada.
“I hope this year we will complete negotiations on expanding the FTA to include services and mutual protection of investments,” the first deputy prime minister said.
He added that Canada is interested in this, since it has great investment potential, concentrated in private pension funds.
TOP 20 COUNTRIES UKRAINE HAS POSTED THE HIGHEST SURPLUS OF TRADE IN GOODS JAN- APRIL 2021 (THSD USD)
MAIN TRADE PARTNERS OF UKRAINE IN % FROM TOTAL VOLUME (EXPORT FROM UKRAINE TO OTHER COUNTRIES) JAN- APRIL 2021
TOP 20 COUNTRIES UKRAINE HAS POSTED THE HIGHEST SURPLUS OF TRADE IN GOODS JAN-MARCH 2021 (THSD USD)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine and Georgia plan to step up trade and economic cooperation and boost trade between the countries in 2021 by 25%.
“Georgia is an important trade partner for us. I am sure that despite the coronavirus pandemic, we will step up trade and economic cooperation this year. A positive trend will be an increase in trade turnover by 25%. This will be one of the main tasks of the joint Ukrainian-Georgian Commission on Economic Cooperation,” Zelensky said during a joint briefing with Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Wednesday in Kyiv.
According to Zelensky, “the next meeting devoted to trade and economic cooperation is scheduled for September this year.”
Ukraine is interested in deepening trade with Kazakhstan in the industrial and food sectors, First Deputy Prime Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko said, following the results of the 14th meeting of the Joint Ukrainian-Kazakhstani Interstate Commission on Economic Cooperation.
“In our opinion, the indicators of mutual trade do not correspond to our capabilities. We, as a reliable trading partner and top exporter of agricultural products, are interested in increasing the volume of trade in agricultural and food products,” the Economy Ministry press service said, citing First Deputy Prime Minister.
“At the same time, we are focused on deepening bilateral cooperation in the industrial sector, in particular, in industrial cooperation in agricultural machinery, automotive technology, aircraft construction and light industry,” Liubchenko said.
The meeting of the commission from Kazakhstan was attended by Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhita Sultanova, as well as Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Ukraine Darkhan Kaletaev and government representatives.
The sides discussed a number of issues on the development of bilateral cooperation in agriculture, infrastructure, energy, science and technology, investment, industry, space, healthcare, transport and transit. They also touched upon tourism, IT, cooperation in public procurement under the WTO agreement, the ministry said.
In addition, the Ukrainian side proposed to the Kazakh side to consider the possibility of investing in Ukrainian industrial parks. In addition, Kazakhstani companies were offered to take part in the concession in Ukraine, the Economy Ministry said.
As a result of the meeting, a relevant protocol on economic cooperation, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Economy Ministry of Ukraine and the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan on cooperation in bilateral trade and a Memorandum of Cooperation in the public-private partnership (PPP) between the PPP Agency were signed and JSC Kazakhstan Public-Private Partnership Center, according to the statement.
