The EU extension of trade preferences for Ukraine through 2025 will be its last, and by summer of next year the parties will update the association agreement in such a way as to establish the expected terms of trade for the period before Ukraine joins the EU, Ukrainian media reported, citing Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister – Economy Minister, Yulia Sviridenko.
She was quoted by the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy.
The so-called autonomous trade measures under which the EU abolished duties and quotas on Ukrainian products have been in effect since June 2022. They were extended several times and expired on June 5, 2024. The new extension, approved by EU institutions in April-May, will maintain the current trade regime through June 5, 2025. Moreover, the updated measures contain protective mechanisms that allow prompt measures to be taken in trade in the event of significant disruptions in the EU common market or the markets of one or more Member States.
The duty-free trade regime for Ukraine concerns mainly agricultural goods, or more precisely, 36 categories of agricultural goods, for which tariff quotas or an input price system had previously been applied, Sviridenko said.
The sharp change in trade flows between Ukraine and the EU in recent years, in particular, a sharp increase in trade in certain goods through neighboring EU member states, has led to a number of negative decisions related, in particular, to blocking the border, the Economy Ministry said.
“For a long time we have been working with the governments of neighboring states and with EU institutions to eliminate these phenomena. As a response to them, the EU regulation on the extension of autonomous trade preferences contains provisions on special protective measures, in particular, automatic measures for corn, meat poultry, sugar, oats and cereals. The most important thing is that both Ukraine and the EU have agreed that this extension of autonomous trade preferences will be the last, and that, by next summer, the parties will update the association agreement to set the expected terms of trade for the country for the period before it joins the EU,” the First Deputy Prime Minister said.
The negotiations will concern not only duties on agricultural goods, which have not yet been liberalized, but also production standards, which will help remove prejudices regarding Ukrainian products, she said. The Ukrainian government will also try to negotiate the removal of all restrictive measures adopted by neighboring EU member states that contradict the logic of open trade.
As for the supply of other goods to the European market, EU trade preferences imply the absence of anti-dumping and protective measures in relation to Ukrainian metallurgical products, the Ministry of Economy said.
Currently, the EU accounts for 65% of Ukrainian exports and 51% of its imports.
The Association Agreement, which envisages a gradual economic and political rapprochement between Ukraine and the EU, was signed in 2014.
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