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Ukraine and Israel have achieved considerable progress in finalization of an agreement on free trade during the sixth round of talks, according to the press service of Ukraine's Ministry for Economic Development and Trade.
"Our position has been formed after consultations with industrial and business associations. It is important that free trade agreements create new opportunities for Ukrainian exporters, therefore it is necessary to let as many agricultural and industrial goods as possible have duty-free access to the Israeli market," said Deputy Economy Minister and Ukraine's Trade Representative Nataliya Mykolska, who chairs the Ukrainian delegation at the talks.
Read alsoUkraine in talks with 22 countries on exports of animal productsThe sides in particular, worked through and virtually completed the discussion of major clauses: institutional, general and final provisions, customs procedures, rules of origin, the settlement of dispute, etc.
In addition, the delegations continued to discuss access to commodity markets and determined the degree of a reduction in customs tariffs for sensitive goods, in particular in the agricultural sector.
In order to complete the negotiations on agricultural and industrial goods, the sides outlined the stages of further work, as well as next rounds and consultations. The seventh round of the talks on a free trade agreement will be held in Israel.
This has been the third meeting of delegations in 2017.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Prime Ministers Volodymyr Groysman and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu said in mid-May that Ukraine and Israel were interested in deepening bilateral economic cooperation and were working on one of the priority tasks, namely, the signing of an agreement on a free trade area before the end of the current year.
According to the Economic Development Ministry, major Ukrainian staples for exports to Israel are cereals (44.1%), ferrous metals (26.4%), and food (9.8%). Ukraine in turn imports mainly petrochemical products (41.4%), chemicals (17.4%), plastics and polymeric materials (7.1%).