Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is poised to fulfill the first of his many campaign promises: to sign the economic part of Ukraine’s association agreement with the European Union, including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.
During Poroshenko’s inauguration on June 7, Poroshenko announced that he was ready to sign including the deal. “The pen is in my hand already,” said the president. On the day of his inauguration, the presidential press service reported that Poroshenko said the agreement should be signed “not later than June 27 this year,” according to Interfax Ukraine.
Speaking at a roundtable organized by the U.S-Ukraine Business Council in Kyiv on June 16, the Ukrainian government’s Commissioner for European Integration Valeriy Pyatnytskiy confirmed there is a “very high probability” that the deal will be signed on June 27.
Negotiations about the DCTFA began in 2008 after Ukraine joined the World Trade Organization, but were delayed in part because Ukrainian leaders feared signing an free trade agreement with the EU would anger Russia, Ukraine’s largest trading partner.
Shortly before Ukraine and the EU were scheduled to sign the agreement at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych balked, igniting a series of protests that toppled Yanukovych’s regime in February.
Under the prime ministership of former opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the EU and Ukraine signed the political side of the association agreement on March 21.
Since Yanukovych’s fall from power, Ukrainian politicians have been less worried about stepping on Russia’s toes. Pyatnytskiy flatly rejected Russia’s calls to be involved in discussions between Ukraine and the EU, saying that there were no plans for trilateral negotiations.
Pyatnitskiy noted the “high probability of a negative reaction” to Ukraine’s decision to sign the DCFTA from members of the customs union, a free trade zone to Ukraine’s north and east comprising Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. “Frankly, everyday Mr. Putin generates some new surprises,” noted Pyatnytskiy with a tinge of disdain.”
Still, the commissioner said he was hopeful about the agreement, saying that it would be important in establishing “a minimum level of trust” between the Ukrainian government and foreign and domestic businesses.
The EU is Ukraine’s second largest trading partner, accounting for one-third of the country’s external trade. In 2013, the EU exported 23.9 billion euros worth of goods to Ukraine, and imported 13.8 billion euros worth of goods from Ukraine.
Pyatnytskiy was cautious not to oversell the significance of the agreement, underscoring that it “will not provide results immediately.”
Pyatnytskiy emphasized that there is much work to be done, particularly in explaining to businesses how to come into line with European regulations.
“It will open the door to create a new bureaucracy,” said the commissioner.
Already, law and accounting firms have begun offering seminars on how to adapt to the new agreement.
At the roundtable in Kyiv, Morgan Williams, the president and chief executive officer of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, praised Ukraine’s new leadership: “From the perspective of the U.S. business community, Mr. Yatsenyuk made the best impression of any Ukrainian politician ever coming to Washington [when he visited in March].”
Responding to skepticism that the EU is prepared to push through with the deal, Pyatnytskiy said that European leaders have “said a number of times that the EU is ready” to sign the agreement with Ukraine.
Georgia and Moldovia are also expected to sign association agreements with the EU on June 27: on June 16, the European Commission released a statement saying that “agreements [with Moldova and Georgia] will be signed…on June 27 together with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Technical preparations for the signature of the latter are expected to be finalized shortly.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Isaac Webb can be reached at [email protected] and on twitter at @isaacdwebb
