According to Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister – Economy Minister, Yulia Sviridenko, the EU will extend trade preferences for Ukraine through 2025 for the last time. By next summer the association agreement will have been updated in such a way that the expected terms of trade for the period before Ukraine joins the EU will be established.
The effect of the so-called autonomous trade measures extended several times under which the EU abolished duties and quotas on Ukrainian products have begun since June 2022 and will expire on June 5, 2024. EU institutions approved the new extension that will maintain the current trade regime through June 5, 2025 and contain protective mechanisms allowing to take prompt measures in trade in case of significant disruptions in the EU common market or the markets of one or more Member States.
As Sviridenko said, agricultural goods, or more precisely, 36 categories of them, for which tariff quotas or an input price system had previously been applied are mainly concerned by the duty-free trade regime for Ukraine.
According to the Economy Ministry, a number of negative decisions were caused by the sharp change in trade flows between Ukraine and the EU in recent years.
Sviridenko also highlighted the long-term collaboration with the governments of neighboring states and with EU institutions in elimination of these phenomena, including the extension of autonomous trade preferences such as provisions on special protective measures, in particular, automatic measures for corn, meat poultry, sugar, oats and cereals. The agreement between Ukraine and the EU on updating of the association agreement in order to set the expected terms of trade for the country for the period before it joins the EU is the most important thing.
As she said, not only duties on agricultural goods, which have not yet been liberalized, but also production standards, which will help remove prejudices regarding Ukrainian products, will be discussed during the negotiations. The removal of all restrictive measures adopted by neighboring EU member states that contradict the logic of open trade will be also negotiated by the Ukrainian government.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the absence of anti-dumping and protective measures in relation to Ukrainian metallurgical products is included in the EU trade preferences concerning the supply of other goods to the European market.
65% of Ukrainian exports and 51% of its imports is currently accounted for the EU.
In 2014 they signed the Association Agreement, which envisages a gradual economic and political rapprochement between Ukraine and the EU.
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