Arseniy Yatsenyuk calls for negotiations with European partners on increasing quotas for Ukrainian products under FTA

The Ukraine-EU Free Trade Agreement comes into force on 1 January 2016. It is necessary to negotiate with European partners on increasing the quotas for Ukrainian products within the FTA, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk underlined at a Government’s session on Wednesday, 29 July.

"But quotas should be used for quality and competitive products," he emphasized.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Oleksiy Pavlenko is facing a difficult task: "On the one hand, we need to ensure export, because export means inflows of foreign exchange earnings to the country, an opportunity for enterprises to sow, development of the agricultural sector. On the other hand - the key task for the Government is food security. This means minimum reserves that will enable us to safely feed the country."

"Export of wheat is good, but much better is to export added value of derivative products, which enables the country to earn much more," the Prime Minister underlined.

For this purpose, Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted, "we must conduct serious negotiations with farmers.

He also reminded that during the Monday's board meeting of the Ministry of Finance "it was clearly raised the issue of export support by Ukreximbank, "Ukreximbank’s resources must be directed to crediting the agricultural sector with a view that we export not grain, but products of processing. This is development of network, infrastructure, plants that will allow, on the one hand, create jobs in the country, on the other - to earn more."

The Prime Minister pointed out the need to hold a meeting with exporters who want to get the appropriate support from Ukreximbank, "to build up a network of processing of agricultural products in the state": "This will enable to change the quality and prices within the country as well as enter the European Union’s markets."

Regarding food security, Arseniy Yatsenyuk asked the relevant Minister to report at a Government meeting, "which amount of grain is carry-over and what we’ve got till the next harvest."