Ukraine-EU Free Trade Area to be launched on Nov. 1

EU Representative to Ukraine Jan Tombinski said on April 17 that he expects the Ukraine-EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area will take effect on Nov. 1, reported the UNIAN news agency. It will operate on the same principles as the current regime of lifted EU import duties. “Ukrainian producers will be given the opportunity to prepare and improve their opportunities on the European market and the Ukrainian market will gradually open for European goods,” he said.



Zenon Zawada: Recall, the EU agreed to unilaterally lift its import duties for Ukrainian products from April 23 till Oct. 31, 2014, implicitly assuming that the parties will launch the Free Trade Area by then. Although it remains unclear which import duties in particular will be lifted in the interim period, we can state with certainty that the companies that stand to benefit immediately are dairy producer Milkiland (MLK PW) and sunflower oil producer Kernel (KER PW), which will benefit from the lifting of import duties on its core products, cheese and sunflower oil. Poultry firm MHP (MHPC LI) and egg producers Avangardco (AVGR LI) and Ovostar (OVO PW) will benefit as well, but to a smaller extent since they have gained only small duty-free quotas instead of total removal of duties.



Yet it’s rather trite to get excited about a free trade zone with the EU when Russian saboteurs arte leading rebellions in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin is making clear that he will arrange for the country’s split. Any possible gains from the FTA for the Ukrainian economy, which will be relatively minor, won’t compensate for the damage done by the Russian invasion and trade restrictions that are gradually being imposed. While the legal infrastructure for enhancing economic ties between Ukraine and the EU need to established, we hope that the EU will be paying more attention to military aid for the Ukrainian government.

Источник: Конкорд Капитал