Ukraine pursuing freer access to EU markets

Ukraine and the EU agreed on Dec. 12 to sign the so-called
industrial visa-free regime, or the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and
Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA), said Olha Stefanyshyna, the deputy
prime minister for Euro-Atlantic integration, as reported by the Ukrinform news
agency. It will apply to certain sorts of value-added products – particularly
low-volt machinery and electromagnetic equipment – and a review of their trade
conditions will begin as of Jan. 1 that will lead to their free access to the
EU, she said. Ukraine may also sign an EU Common Aviation Space agreement at
the Feb. 11 Ukraine-EU Association council meeting, she said on television that
day. 

At that time, “all the procedures for signing the Open
Air Agreement will be completed,” Stefanyshyna said, adding that the signing
also depends on the European Commission. The agreement implies “free
competition, the creation of a new market, increasing access to a market of 500
million EU air flights, cheaper tickets and more flights,” she said. “Air
travel will become an accessible form of transport. And taking into account
that we have visa-free, this will allow for increasing contact between people,
as well as flights between the EU and Ukraine.”

Ukraine is also pursuing access to the EU
pharmaceutical and seafood markets as part of their mutual free trade
agreement, Stefanyshna said. Ukraine will initiate this process at the Feb. 11
meeting, where it will also seek the full liberalization of EU access for
certain Ukrainian producers, she said. “The fulfillment of the Association
Agreement with the EU, the consistent conformity of Ukrainian legislation to
European standards, the use of instruments to expand access to the EU domestic
market is the guaranty of that trust that will create the space for drawing
investments and developing entrepreneurship in Ukraine,” she said.

Zenon Zawada: It’s very
positive that the Zelensky administration has talented diplomats, such as
Stefanyshyna and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who are actively pursuing
concrete measures towards Euro-Atlantic integration. They are reaching such
agreements despite the persistent acts of aggression by Russia, and its allies
in Ukraine, in its hybrid war that is in its sixth year.

This is why we don’t agree with characterizations of
the Zelensky administration as serving Putin’s interests. Instead, it is
renewing a policy – initiated by former President Kuchma – of extracting
maximum benefits and resources from both the West and Russia, often playing the
two competitors against each other.