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.
Ukraine and Turkey have signed an agreement to expand the joint production of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Today we’ve paid special attention to cooperation in the aviation and defense industries. This is one of the locomotives of our strategic partnership. Our goal is the implementation of specific projects to create joint ventures, exchange of experience, exchange of technologies. An agreement has been signed today that will expand the production of unmanned aerial vehicles,” Zelensky said at a joint briefing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Kyiv.
As reported, Oleksiy Arestovych, the speaker of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in Donbas, in December 2021 announced that the Ukrainian-Turkish plant, which is being built in the town of Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, will produce reactive heavy drones of the ANKA type – the next generation of drones after Bayraktar, as well as promising Ukrainian drones.
“In particular, we can talk about jet drones, which are interceptors. That is, they are capable of operating against air targets, against other drones. Even against manned aircraft. They will have Ukrainian engines and the rest of Turkish avionics: a hull, etc.,” he said.
According to Arestovych, the plant in Vasylkiv should already produce the first products at the end of 2022.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Turkey at a government meeting on Wednesday.
According to First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, the agreement will bring an additional 2% of GDP annually.
“The basis of the agreement is the zeroing of duties by Turkey for 10,337 commodity items. This is 95% of the total number of goods. Another 1,348 commodity items will be subject to tariff quotas or duty reduction,” she said, presenting the draft FTA Agreement with Turkey at the government meeting.
Currently, Ukraine exports 1,100 commodity items to Turkey, since Turkey has one of the highest levels of customs protection in the world, she said. At the same time, the level of Ukrainian customs duties is one of the lowest.
“In recent years, we have begun to observe that Ukrainian duties have generally ceased to be a barrier to Turkish goods, while Turkish duties for our goods have been an impenetrable wall for entering their market,” Svyrydenko said.
According to her, Ukraine reserves the right to apply a duty on the export of scrap metal.
“At the same time, Turkey opens the domestic market for our metal. Duties for another 130 commodity items of metallurgy goods have been partially reduced… And additional quotas have been established for 160 metallurgy goods,” Svyrydenko said.
According to her, Ukraine will retain duties on the import of used cars, setting transitional periods of three to five years for vehicles and light industry products. As for the latter, Svyrydenko announced state support in the form of affordable loans for the modernization of equipment for Ukrainian light industry companies.
At the same time, the parties reserve the right to restore the effect of duties through the mechanism of bilateral safeguard measures.
As Svyrydenko said, the review of the agreement shall take place no later than two years later.
Ukraine and Turkey will reach an agreement on signing an agreement on a free trade area (FTA) in the next two days, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“We are getting ready to give a powerful economic signal, to sign an FTA agreement with Turkey already within these two days. Our groups are working. I am sure that we will agree,” he said, speaking at the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine plans to open a new embassy building in Turkey next year.
“We have begun to build the first Embassy in Turkey over the past 10 years. It is modern and very cool. We are sure that next year we will open this Embassy. The task is to build it quickly. The main thing is still quality,” Zelensky told reporters at a conference of Ukrainian ambassadors at the state residence Synehora in Ivano-Frankivsk region on Tuesday.
He also added that within the framework of the conference, the issue of updating the diplomatic missions of Ukraine in other countries was discussed.
Turkey is preparing to supply at least 20 more Bayraktar-TB2 attack drones to Ukraine, Bloomberg reports, citing sources in Turkish government and military-industrial circles.
The Bayraktar company has sold Ukraine “dozens of drones along with control stations and missiles” since 2019, and “orders for at least two dozen more drones are under development,” Bloomberg wrote.
A source in the Turkish government also told Bloomberg that new deals are under development, including the joint production by Turkey of carrier rockets such as the Ukrainian Zenit-2. It could help Turkey develop ballistic missiles, the agency said, although a senior Turkish official said “Ankara has no such intentions.”
In September, defensenews.com reported that Ukraine and Turkey were preparing a contract for 24 Bayraktar-TB2 drones.
