Ukraine and Turkey, within the framework of the Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement, have reached an agreement on the complete liberalization of road transportation.
“As part of the FTA, a historic agreement was reached on the complete liberalization of road transportation. Restrictions for Ukrainian road carriers in the Turkish market will soon be lifted, in particular, this also applies to the entry of empty vehicles. That is, trucks will be able to enter empty and return with goods,” Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov wrote on his Facebook page.
He stressed that the next step is to expand cooperation on combined and multimodal transportation between Ukraine and Turkey.
“We propose to create special conditions for tuning transport chains in the “road-port-road” format,” Kubrakov stressed.
According to him, the strategic goal of Ukraine is the maximum removal of restrictions for Ukrainian carriers.
Kubrakov recalled that in negotiations with the European Union, Ukraine stands for the complete liberalization of road freight traffic.
He also expressed hope that cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey in terms of road construction will be expanded thanks to new projects, including the construction of concession roads.
Kubrakov also stressed that the countries continue to work together on an agreement on cooperation in the field of maritime search and rescue in the Black Sea.
“This is an important issue for Ukraine, which arose sharply after the annexation of Crimea. An agreement with Turkey will help legally secure Ukraine’s areas belonging to it, improve the ability to conduct search and rescue operations. This will eliminate insinuations from the aggressor country about Ukraine’s failure to fulfill its international obligations,” the minister said.
He also noted the prospects for cooperation between Turkish partners and the largest Ukrainian state stevedore – Pivdenny seaport, since among all Ukrainian ports it will potentially be able to receive the largest ships that will enter the Black Sea thanks to the built Istanbul Canal.
Among the proposals voiced by the parties to the discussion of the FTA agreement is the expansion of the geography of air travel between the countries, including on the Istanbul-Uzhgorod route.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has proposed the Verkhovna Rada to ratify the protocol signed between Ukraine and the UK in 2019, which will provide an opportunity to create legal grounds for international freight transportation by Euro-5 and higher vehicles without obtaining necessary permits.
The Cabinet of Ministers adopted a corresponding decision on July 15.
According to an explanatory note to the document, the text of which is available to Interfax-Ukraine, the corresponding protocol was developed with the aim of improving the legal framework, intensifying the process of liberalization of international road transportation between Ukraine and Britain, in particular to avoid a situation with a lack of permits for Ukrainian road carriers, as occurred with Ukraine and Poland.
According to the developer of the document, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the implementation of international freight carriage without permits will give an extremely positive impetus to the development of trade between countries, as well as the development of the transport sector.
“Now the fleet of vehicles transporting to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland includes vehicles with engines that meet high environmental standards. The implementation of this draft protocol will provide new opportunities for domestic carriers to carry out their activities. In addition, Ukraine will be able to attract additional freight traffic, as British carriers will also be able to carry out transportation to Ukraine without permits,” the Ministry of Infrastructure said.
