Ukraine has postponed signing the free trade area agreement with Israel due to the priority of signing the Association Agreement with the European Union Israeli Deputy Interior Minister Fania Kirshenbaum has said.
“We have completed our work [to create the free trade zone with Ukraine] on the Israeli side. But because Ukraine is currently very busy with signing the Association Agreement with the EU, it concentrates most of its time on this and the issue of establishing the free trade zone with Israel has fallen by the wayside,” Kirshenbaum said at a news conference in Kyiv on Monday.
Ukraine will sign the Associate Agreement with the EU and the issue of creating the free trade zone with Israel will be resolved by the end of the year, she said.
“Creating the free trade zone will contribute to increasing the export of Ukrainian products to Israel. In addition, Israeli businessmen are interested in investing in Ukraine,” Kirshenbaum said.
In particular, Israel is an exporter of high technologies and knowledge to other countries and it is interested in developing relations with Ukraine in this sphere, Kirshenbaum said. “Israel, on its end, has provided state guarantees for this kind of cooperation and we all currently expect measures in return from Ukraine in providing these guarantees,” she said.
Israel is interested in signing an agreement with Ukraine on work force exchanges, Kirshenbaum said. “We are interested in signing a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Israel in the sphere of exchanging workers,” she said. Israel is in serious need of additional workers in agriculture, medicine and construction, Kirshenbaum added.
