You're reading: Azarov hopes new CIS free trade area will appear in 2013

YALTA - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov hopes that a new free trade area (FTA) will start to function between his country and other CIS member states next year.

“Five states have already ratified the FTA agreement. And the leaders
of another three countries have told us today that they will finalize
the ratification procedures in the near future. There is hope that an
absolutely new trade regime will be established between Commonwealth
countries next year, opening up new prospects for free trade within this
vast space,” he told journalists after a session of the CIS Prime
Ministers Council in Yalta on Friday.

It is important to give a practical agenda to this project, Azarov said.

The CIS FTA agreement has already been ratified by Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Armenia.