You're reading: Customs Union, Ukraine to consider canceling mutual trade barriers by April

Moscow - The Customs Union and Ukraine will consider removing mutual trade protection measures by April 2013, the Trade Minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Andrei Slepnev told journalists after the first "dialog on trade issues" between the EEC and the Ukrainian government. 

“We have agreed that we will ask our experts to draft some action plan to minimize these barriers by the next meeting,” he said.

Each individual measure requires an individual approach; there is no universal way to resolve these issues, Slepnev said. In all likelihood, the sides will not manage to cancel all of the barriers, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Economic Development and Trade Minister Petro Poroshenko said that the Customs Union and Ukraine will look into minimizing not just customs barriers, but also barriers in technical regulation by the next “dialog on trade issues.” The next meeting, scheduled for April-May 2013, will take place in Kyiv, he said.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Ukraine and the Customs Union agreed to hold consultations with regards to not imposing new restrictive measures against one another, Slepnev said.

At the moment, the Customs Union has about ten restrictive measures in place against Ukraine, and vice versa.