The European Union's decision to extend a preferential regime for Ukrainian exporters for one year will enable Ukraine to better prepare and conduct the necessary reforms, says Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
“This is a good agreement for us. The EU is opening its markets to us, while we are not fully opening ours to EU goods. This period that has been granted to us will enable Ukraine to prepare and conduct reforms,” Yatsenyuk said during a discussion at the 11th Yalta European Strategy (YES) annual forum in Kyiv on Saturday, Sep. 13.
At the same time, as soon as the Ukraine-EU association agreement has been ratified by the Ukrainian parliament and the European Parliament, “the government and the president will implement each word from this agreement,” Yatsenyuk said.
It was reported earlier that Ukraine and the European Union had agreed to postpone the application of the deep and comprehensive free trade area regulations that are part of their association agreement until Dec. 31, 2015.
“To be able to fully support the stabilization of Ukraine, the Commission is ready, in the event that Ukraine ratifies the Association Agreement with the EU, to propose additional flexibility,” says a joint statement that European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev issued on Friday, Sep. 12.
“Such flexibility will consist in delaying until Dec. 31 2015 the provisional application of the DCFTA [deep and comprehensive free trade area] while continuing autonomous trade measures of the EU to the benefit of Ukraine during this period,” the statement says.
