You're reading: Kliuyev: CIS free trade area agreement strategically important for Ukraine’s development

An agreement on the creation of a free trade area (FTA) within the CIS is strategically important for Ukraine, and it will effectively work for the benefit of all CIS member states, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Andriy Kliuyev has said.

He said that owing to the mechanisms that include the agreement,
Ukrainian producers are expanding their opportunities on access to the
CIS market. He recalled that the CIS market was the largest market for
Ukrainian goods. In 2011, it accounted for 42% of Ukraine’s foreign
trade turnover, or $72 billion.

Kliuyev also noted that the CIS market was especially important for
Ukraine, because the lion’s share of Ukrainian products with high added
value, mainly engineering products, is supplied to CIS countries.

He noted that participation in the CIS FTA agreement was already
producing concrete results for Ukraine. He recalled that after the
ratification of the agreement, the Russian government had decided to
introduce amendments to the agreement on pipe supplies to the countries
of the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan). This will have a
positive impact and give significant results as 50,000 people employed
in the industry will have jobs, and the country will receive at least
$400 million in foreign exchange earnings, Kliuyev said.

He recalled that according to experts, the effect of the CIS FTA
agreement could in the medium term help increase industrial production
in Ukraine by 3.5-4% and increase GDP by an additional 2.5% per year.
The acceleration of growth in a number of industrial branches will lead
to an increase in employment and the growth of population’s income and
revenues to the state budget, Kliuyev said.