EU extends duty-free trade regime for Ukraine for another year - Svyrydenko

The European Union has extended the duty-free trade regime for Ukraine for another year, until June 2025.

This is stated in the message of the Ministry of Economy, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"This is an extremely important aspect of political support for Ukraine, despite all the sensitivity of the issue of trade in agricultural products. The majority of Ukrainian goods are exported to the EU without restrictions on the basis of the Association Agreement. In particular, all industrial goods are no longer subject to customs duties. The EU's autonomous trade preferences apply to agricultural goods, which have not been fully liberalized in the Agreement. These are 36 categories of goods for which tariff quotas were provided, as well as goods to which the entry price system is applied. From June 2022, these restrictions will be in effect until June 2025," explained the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy Yuliya Svyrydenko.

Also, the EU's autonomous trade preferences provide that anti-dumping and protective measures will not be applied to metallurgical products.

Svyrydenko noted that a sharp change in trade flows between Ukraine and the EU, in particular, a sharp increase in trade in certain goods through neighboring EU member states, led to a number of negative decisions, in particular, to blocking the border.

"For a long time, we have been working with the governments of neighboring states and EU institutions to eliminate these phenomena. As a reaction to them, the EU Regulation on the continuation of autonomous trade preferences contains provisions on special protective measures, in particular, automatic measures on corn, poultry meat, 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 by the 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 accession in the EU," she said.

According to her, such negotiations will concern not only tariffs on those agricultural goods that have not yet been liberalized, but also production standards, in such a way as to remove prejudices against Ukrainian products.

The government will also try to achieve the removal of all temporary measures taken by neighboring EU member states and Ukraine, which contradict the logic of open trade between us.

According to Svyrydenko, the EU currently accounts for 65% of exports and 51% of imports to Ukraine and is an anchor trade partner for Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in May 2022, the EU canceled customs duties on all Ukrainian goods for one year.

At the same time, in May 2023, the EU extended the "economic visa-free regime" with Ukraine for another year.