In September of this year the European Commission will announce a decision to give Ukraine additional trade preferences

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman met with EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström in Brussels on Tuesday. The parties discussed the state of implementation of the Association Agreement, inter alia a deep and comprehensive free trade area.

The Prime Minister noted that the execution of the Agreement is among the essential priorities of the Government, and therefore "we need support from Brussels", he highlighted. Both Ukraine and the EU are interested in DCFTA to demonstrate positive economic effect in the near future. "It will be a political "success story" in our bilateral relations", stressed the Head of Ukrainian Government.

Volodymyr Groysman urged the Commissioner to adopt as fast as possible a decision on the introduction by the EU of additional economic and trade preferences for Ukraine. "The EU should demonstrate strong support for Ukraine in the context of Russian transit and trade restrictions", he highlighted.

In response, Cecilia Malmström said: "In September we’ll be ready to announce additional trade preferences for Ukraine". "It is important that the scope of the EU autonomous preferences were ambitious and included critically important product categories such as poultry, products of animal origin, flour, fruit juices, electrical appliances, aluminium and articles thereof", said Volodymyr Groysman.

The Prime Minister updated that the Government of Ukraine is working on solving the existing "issues of major concern" in the bilateral trade relations between Ukraine and the EU and settlement of these creates the prerequisites for obtaining the second tranche of the EU macro-financial assistance worth EUR 600 million.

Volodymyr Groysman gained the support of the European Commissioner in the matter of establishment of an Office of Investment Management, as well as the reform of the Ukrainian customs.

The parties pointed out mutual interest in deepening bipartite collaboration on industrial policy. In this framework they stressed the necessity to launch a High-Level Dialogue between Ukraine and the EU on industrial policy.

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