Brussels will try to persuade Russia to maintain trade preferences for Ukraine
On Monday, trilateral consultations at the ministerial level between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union will be held in Brussels, during which they will discuss how to reconcile Ukraine’s original presence in the CIS free trade zone with its recent and still frozen obligations on the trade and economic part of the agreement on associations with the European Union, writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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The Minister of Economy of the Russian Federation, Alexey Ulyukaev, spoke in an interview with the publication about what specific issues will be discussed during the negotiations.
“The EU leadership insists that Russia must agree to a significant limitation in the scope of Ukraine’s obligations to us within the framework of multilateral (CIS) and bilateral agreements that conflict with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement,” the minister noted. – And at the same time maintain in full its obligations on preferential trade with Ukraine. Attempts to find balanced, mutually acceptable trilateral solutions to address specific concerns, as a prerequisite for considering the possibility of maintaining the existing free trade regime between Russia and Ukraine, do not find understanding.”
One of the main issues causing disagreement, the head of the Russian ministry called the impossibility of continuing the existing practice of mutual recognition of certificates with Ukraine and says that this will lead to new barriers.
“The suspension of supplies for the period of obtaining new certificates may subsequently prevent Russian companies from returning to the previous level of mutual trade,” emphasizes Alexey Ulyukaev. -Thus, significant damage will be caused to our industries. To minimize these risks, we proposed that our partners maintain until 2025 the application on the territory of Ukraine of the acts currently in force in these areas, along with the acts implemented by Ukraine within the framework of the association agreement with the EU.”
According to the minister, EU representatives “indicated the possibility of some progress, but no specific proposals were made.”
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