Arseniy Yatsenyuk: The sooner we upgrade the industry, the sooner we conquer international markets

"Russia has closed its markets to Ukrainian industrial goods. We have opened a new market – the Canadian one", said Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Friday, July 17.

"We have inked a second after the European Union agreement on free trade area - Ukraine and Canada have completed negotiations to establish a free trade zone that have lasted nearly seven years," he stressed.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced that Canada decided to fully liberalize its market for Ukrainian industrial goods: "Russia has closed its markets to Ukrainian industrial goods. We have opened a new market – the Canadian one".

"We must frankly admit we are not capable to conquer this market tomorrow, as we are behind in technology. We should do a lot to modernize the Ukrainian economy", he added.

For this purpose the deal between Ukraine and Canada envisages direct technical assistance to retrofit Ukrainian industry: "The sooner we upgrade the industry, the sooner we conquer both Canadian and European markets".

The Prime Minister also announced that as part of the negotiations with the Canadian party it was decided to apply relevant rules of the free trade area: "Almost the entire Canadian market is open, only 70% of the Ukrainian market is open at this. And we've got a transition period of up to seven years to ensure adaptation of the Ukrainian economy".

Moreover, Arseniy Yatsenyuk reminded that the Government of Canada provides assistance in training Ukrainian troops and reforming the police. So, to establish a new Ukrainian police there was allocated 5 million Canadian dollars: "We believe that this funding will be increased to ensure presence of the new Ukrainian police in each city and settlement. This is a true reform that people feel. It is a real protection for the people. And our western partners are helping us in that."