The EU Council has officially confirmed the extension of the duty-free trade regime with Ukraine for another 12 months. This regime, which started operating in June 2022, will now be extended until June 2025. This was announced by the First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko.
“This is a very important aspect of political support for Ukraine, despite the sensitivity of the issue of trade in agricultural products. Most Ukrainian goods are exported to the EU without restrictions under the Association Agreement. In particular, all industrial goods are no longer subject to duty. The EU’s autonomous trade preferences concern agrarian goods that were not fully liberalized in the Agreement. These are 36 categories of goods for which tariff quotas were provided, as well as goods to which the input price system applies. Since June 2022, these restrictions have been removed, and now full freedom of trade will last until June 2025,” said Yulia Sviridenko.
Also, these preferences stipulate that anti-dumping and safeguard measures for metallurgical products will not be applied.
However, the dramatic change in trade flows between Ukraine and the EU, in particular the sharp increase in trade in some goods through neighboring EU member states, has led to a number of negative decisions, including blocking the border.
“We have been working for a long time with neighboring governments and EU institutions to address these concerns. The EU Regulation on the extension of autonomous trade preferences contains provisions for special safeguard measures, including automatic measures for corn, poultry meat, sugar, oats and cereals. The main thing is that Ukraine and the EU have agreed that this extension of preferences will be the last one, and by next summer we will update the association agreement to establish predictable trade conditions before joining the EU,” Yuliya Sviridenko said.
She also noted that the negotiations will cover not only customs issues for agricultural goods that have not yet been liberalized, but also production standards to remove prejudices against Ukrainian products. The government is also seeking to remove all temporary measures imposed by neighboring EU member states and Ukraine that contradict the logic of open trade.
The EU now accounts for 65% of Ukraine’s exports and 51% of its imports, being a key trading partner for the country.