On February 15, First Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of New Zealand to Ukraine (concurrently) Wendy Hinton.

During the meeting the interlocutors discussed the possibility to enhance mutual trade and investment. For 11 months of 2016, the exports from Ukraine to New Zealand increased 1.5 times and amounted to $ 2.4 million (for 11 months of 2016 against the same period of 2015). However, the actual volumes of bilateral trade remained rather low and amounted to $ 12.6 million.

Stepan Kubiv noted that trade between New Zealand and Ukraine is characterized by significant changes, primarily in the structure and volumes of commodities. This is a consequence of the policy of reorientation of markets, which is carried out both in Ukraine and New Zealand.

“Ukraine engages in active work to create conditions for expanding markets for our exporters who suffered from the loss of the Russian market as a result of Russian economic aggression against Ukraine. The support for Ukraine by New Zealand is especially valuable, because the Russian market played an important role in the economy of New Zealand. Therefore, our countries should help each other in activities on the diversification of markets, which were lost as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine”, explained Stepan Kubiv.

Wendy Hinton, in turn, noted that New Zealand had had similar experience of pursuing structural reforms and demonstrates readiness to share it with Ukraine.

“For instance, in the 1980's, New Zealand had introduced a radical structural transformation, completely abandoning subsidizing any industries. New Zealand is known worldwide by making this step and for the deregulation processes. We are ready to impart this experience with Ukrainian colleagues”, stressed Wendy Hinton.

Stepan Kubiv also noted the positive results of the implementation of the free trade agreement with the EU from 1 January 2016 and other results of the work on the expansion of export opportunities of Ukraine.

The meeting participants agreed to continue active cooperation aimed to increase the volumes of mutual trade and expand the range of export-import operations between Ukraine and New Zealand.