“A draft Contract in English was signed and this became an important moment in Ukraine – EU relations” – said Petro Poroshenko, the Secretary of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. According to him, thanks to Ukrainian negotiation team professionalism the Parties managed to finish the document preparation before the period of vacations otherwise initialing could be delayed until the autumn.

According to Mr. Poroshenko initialed agreement will be sent to Kiev at the nearest time, translated into Ukrainian and languages of the EU member states. “After that begins the political part of work on the Contract signing and its implementation,” – he explained. At the same time Poroshenko said that even after the initialing of the document its status does not provide for publication, however, he supposed that by agreement with the European side this ban will be lifted already in September.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine predicts that within a few months the agreement will be signed by the President of Ukraine and the EU government, and then will be sent for ratification. Meanwhile, in contrast to the political part of the document, it is necessary to ratify the treaty on FTZ establishment only in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) and the European Parliament without consideration in the parliaments of all the EU member states. However, this simplicity does not mean the possibility of a separate ratification of the economic part of the document. Thus the economic part of the Agreement ratification is only possible when Euro-MPs reach a consensus on Ukraine’s compliance with democratic standards.

Agreement on FTZ entry into force can provide a significant impetus to the Ukrainian economy, as the EU now is the second largest trade partner of Ukraine, after Russia. As a result of 2011, exports of Ukrainian goods to the EU reached $ 17.96 billion (26.2% of total exports), while the country has received the goods from the EU in total value of $ 25.75 billion (31.1% of total imports). “The economic effect of the FTZ creation will depend on the activity of Ukrainian business, and the restoration of the EU markets. But in any case the effect will be positive, and in addition, the FTZ Agreement, besides customs rates optimization, brings Ukrainian regulatory norms adaptation to the EU standards which would be a significant incentive for investing in the country “- said Ihor Burakovsky, the Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.

 Based on kommersant.ua report