Ukraine’s Economy Ministry is expecting to start official negotiations with the United Kingdom concerning a new cooperation and trade agreement between the two countries this year. The new free trade agreement will be similar to Ukraine’s existing agreement with the European Union, according to the ministry.
In a comment to the Kyiv Post, the ministry’s spokesperson Roksolana Pidlasa stated that there is mutual interest between Ukraine and the U.K. in a new trade agreement and that talks will most likely begin as soon as the U.K. will vote on official terms concerning the country’s European Union exit.
“When Brexit is finalized, we hope to have an agreement in place with which we can work with,” Pidlasa says.
The ministry is also expected to sign a free trade agreement with Israel no later than February. According to Pidlasa, negotiations with Israel were successfully concluded in December and are awaiting official signatures.
The ministry’s Export Promotion Office issued a press-release on Dec. 21 stating that first contracts between Ukrainian companies and their Israeli counterparts have already been signed.
The situation doesn’t look so positive for a similar agreement between Ukraine and Turkey. Talks that began at least back in 2011 saw 10 official rounds of negotiations between the two countries that are yet to produce results.
During a visit to Istanbul on Nov. 3 Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko stated that a free trade agreement between the two countries would be confirmed by the end of 2018. However, as of mid-January 2019, there are still a number of differences that are not yet settled.
These include disagreements related to e-commerce, customs cooperation, quotas, export tariffs and subsidies, and the level of market liberalization that both countries are willing to take.
“The Ukrainian delegation has a fundamental position that a free trade agreement must comply with its name, thus a deep liberalization of access to the markets,” says Pidlasa – “Turkey is currently not ready.”
A new round of negotiations is set to start in the first quarter of 2019.
Among other events, the Economy Ministry is planning to revise its free trade agreements with Georgia and Macedonia, as some positions are outdated and in need of renegotiation, as stated by the ministry.
