U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker congratulated Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk and members of the Government on the signing of the agreement on the construction of a new grain terminal at the Port of Yuzhny and noted the significant progress made in the implementation of a roadmap of cooperation between Ukraine and the U.S.A. This was stated in a letter from Penny Pritzker to the Head of the Ukrainian Government.

Penny Pritzker sent her compliments to Arseniy Yatsenyuk as well as Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Andrii Pyvovarsky, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Natalie Jaresko and Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Olexii Pavlenko with regards to the conclusion of the agreement between Cargill and M. V. Cargo on the construction of the marine grain handling terminal at the Port of Yuzhny to the tune of US$100 million.

"The construction of the grain terminal is a proof of the progress demonstrated by You and Your Government thereby starting to create conditions necessary to attract additional investment from America to Ukraine. This is just that positive result we expected during the American-Ukrainian business forum in July last year", the letter from Penny Pritzker to Arseniy Yatsenyuk reads.

The Secretary of Commerce noted the long and significant achievement shown up by the Government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk in the framework of the implementation of the U.S.-Ukrainian Roadmap that had been agreed during a visit of Kyiv by Penny Pritzker in October last year.

In particular, it is noted in the letter, over this time, the Government had reduced the royalty rate on gas production, joined the World Trade Organization agreement (WTO) on government procurement, implemented the WTO trade facilitation agreement, improved a system of VAT administration, eliminated a number of difficult post-Soviet regulatory procedures.

Stressing the continued commitment to the program with the International Monetary Fund Penny Pritzker noted the need to prolong by Ukraine the fight against corruption, in particular in the Prosecutor General's office, to adopt effective legislation to protect intellectual property rights and to renew simplifying of regulatory procedures.

Penny Pritzker hailed Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the Ukrainian Government on these achievements and emphasized that she looked forward to deepening the bilateral partnership this year.

As was reported, on February 24 in the presence of Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk, members of the Government of Ukraine and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the USA in Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, an agreement was inked between Cargill and M. V. Cargo on investing US $100 million into the construction of a grain terminal at the Sea Trade Port of Yuzhny.