The Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Turkey at a government meeting on Wednesday, the 2nd of February, 2022. According to First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, the agreement will potentially bring an additional 2% of Ukrainian GDP annually.

Currently, Ukraine exports 1,100 commodity items to Turkey, since Turkey has one of the highest levels of customs protection in the world, she said. At the same time, the level of Ukrainian customs duties is one of the lowest.

In recent years, we have begun to observe that Ukrainian duties have generally ceased to be a barrier to Turkish goods, while Turkish duties for our goods have been an impenetrable wall for entering their market.

The basis of the agreement is the zeroing of duties by Turkey for 10,337 commodity items. This is 95% of the total number of goods. Another 1,348 commodity items will be subject to tariff quotas or duty reduction.

Yulia Svyrydenko, Minister of Economy

With the adoption of this order, the national procedures necessary for signing the agreement will be completed, which will contribute to the development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the countries, will allow domestic producers to benefit from the liberalization of the market for goods and services of the Republic of Turkey, will open up opportunities for Ukrainian business as a expansion of sales markets, as well as for the development and modernization of our own production.

According to the Minister, Ukraine will retain duties on the import of used cars, setting transitional periods of three to five years for vehicles and light industry products. As for the latter, Svyrydenko announced state support in the form of affordable loans for the modernization of equipment for Ukrainian light industry companies.

“At the same time, Turkey opens the domestic market for our metal. Duties for another 130 commodity items of metallurgy goods have been partially reduced… And additional quotas have been established for 160 metallurgy goods,” she added. Anyway, Ukraine reserves the right to apply a duty on the export of scrap metal.

The signing of the agreement is on calendar on the 3rd of February.

Yulia Svyrydenko reported that the review of the agreement shall take place no later than two years later. At the same time, the parties reserve the right to restore the effect of duties through the mechanism of bilateral safeguard measures.