The European Union has proposed a transitional period of five to ten years for Ukrainian producers to resolve the issue of the geographical names of products, and Ukraine is planning to consider this proposal in the light of its access to the EU market, taking into account the interests of national producers, Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Valeriy Piatnytsky has said.
"We have received a proposal on a transitional period of five to ten years. We are considering this through the prism of the fact that for geographical names we need access to the market. In this connection, we will make counter-proposals taking into account the interests of our producers," he told Ukrainian journalists in Brussels on Friday after another round of talks between Ukraine and the EU on the creation of a free trade area.
He said that during the transitional period Ukrainian producers would have to launch a rebranding of their products at their own expense, with no guarantee to enter the European market.
"Producers should bear the cost of the rebranding of their products, but in ten years they will have no right to sell these products on the domestic market or export them to the EU or third countries," he predicted.
In this regard, Piatnytsky expressed confidence that an agreement on the creation of a free trade area should foresee the mechanism of "how these companies will get the funds for rebranding," particularly in the form of technical assistance and other opportunities.
