The Committee presented a study “Strategic guidelines for deepening trade and economic relations between Ukraine and the European Union under the Association Agreement”.
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olga Stefanyshyna, Deputy Ministers for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Taras Kachka and Mykhailo Lev, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark Ole Egberg Mikkelsen, representatives of industrial, manufacture and transport associations joined the discussion.
Tetiana Bogdan, Doctor of Economics, Scientific Director at the Growford Institute, said: “The asymmetric nature of the Association Agreement in trade in services does not allow Ukraine to expect a significant increase in exports of services to the EU. First, the current version of the AA in Annexes XVI-A and XVI-D contains reservations that restrict the most favourable treatment or national treatment for Ukrainian service providers in the EU market in terms of establishing a business. There are 105 such reservations or exemptions from the EU for Ukrainian companies and only 21 from Ukraine’s side.
Secondly, another group of violations of the free trade regime concerns the regulation of cross-border provision of services from the territory of Ukraine to the territory of the EU without the participation of the supplier in the importing country. Annex XVI-B shows 190 exemptions from the EU for the free provision of services by Ukrainian companies, and only 27 exceptions from Ukraine for EU companies”.
Tetiana Bogdan added that these issues needed to be adjusted in the process of revising the Agreement to establish equal relations between trading partners and remove artificial barriers to increasing exports of Ukrainian services to the EU market.
“In particular, the existing restrictions specified in Annex XVI in the AA should be minimized and the most favorable treatment for the import of most services, both to the EU market and to the Ukrainian market, with the exception of national security and defense services should be sought”, – explained the scientific director of the Growford Institute.
Following the discussion, the Growford Institute sent “Proposals for revision of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU in terms of trade in services” to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Policy.