September, 17th, Kyiv – “This morning the government approved the action plan for the EU-UA Association Agreement implementation. The Prime Minister stressed that the government would do their best to step up this process and demonstrate tangible results in the nearest future. In the meantime, the Russian Federation makes statements concerning possible implementation of the customs regime with Ukraine despite the agreement reached between Ukraine, the EU and the Russian Federation which stipulates that Ukraine enjoys free trade area with CIS till the end of 2015. This step literally means that the party withdraws from the agreement”, said the Ukrainian trade representative Valeriy Pyatnytskyi during this briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
Mr. Piatnytskyi underlined that Ukraine won the trilateral negotiations since the unilateral trade with the EU was extended, and neither date nor conditions of the Association agreement were changed. The EU literally granted us a 0,5 billion euro discount and, additionally, will implement a macrofinance, technical and budget-related support in different spheres to adapt enterprises and institutions to the new market rules.
Currently, according to Mr. Piantytskyi, the trade volume within CIS has been plunging. Ukraine preserves its export activity volumes with Belarus, but the export to Kazakhstan has dropped by 50% as the goods are shipped via Russia, and the export to Russia has decreased by 30%. Valeriy was cited as saying that “measures taken by the Russian Federation concerning Ukrainian products are humiliating and infringe the free trade agreement within CIS. At the same time, business sector is not seeking one’s help and takes some measures. Hence, nowadays 60% decrease in trade has been compensated by exporting our products to other markets, chiefly to the EU and a range of other countries including those from Africa”.
