Russia introduces food embargo against Ukraine starting January 1 / Photo from UNIAN
The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU will be introduced in full on January 1, 2016, according to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk who spoke at an annual press conference on Tuesday.
The agreement on a deep and comprehensive free trade area with the European Union will take effect from January 1, 2016 in its entirety, said Yatsenyuk.
He also said that Ukraine has already prepared a set of countermeasures to be used against Russia, as the Kremlin announces introduction of the embargo on Ukrainian exports also from January 1, 2016.
Read alsoEU sets facts straight about EU-Ukraine Association Agreement"Ukraine held 16 consultations on how Ukraine would implement an agreement on an FTA with the EU and whether there are risks for the Russian Federation. From the 16 rounds of consultations, it became clear that there are no conditions whatsoever for Russia to even raise the issue of risks,” said Yatsenyuk. “It is not related to the economy, it is only geopolitics. But I want to once again remind you that on January 1, [the agreement on] a free trade area between Ukraine and the European Union enters into force in its entirety."
At the same time, Yatsenyuk stressed that Russia is ready to impose sanctions in response. "But Ukraine has prepared countersanctions, which will be introduced in response to both a trade embargo and the suspension of the agreement on free trade zone between Ukraine and Russia within the CIS," said Yatsenyuk.
As UNIAN reported earlier, The EU and Ukraine repeatedly stated they would not postpone the introduction of the free trade zone, nor would they make any changes to the Association Agreement.
It was initially assumed that the DCFTA would take effect from October 2014. However, in September 2014, after consultations in Brussels of the representatives of the European Commission, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the parties agreed to postpone the introduction of the provisions of the Agreement until December 31, 2015.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending the agreement on the free trade area between Russia and Ukraine from January 1, 2016, which was effective within the FTA framework of the CIS countries.
On December 21, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that from January 1, the Russian Federation would impose food embargo on Ukrainian goods.
On December 24 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law allowing the Cabinet to impose trade sanctions or other restrictive measures in response to the discriminatory or hostile actions by other states, primarily Russia, with regard to Ukraine.