KIEV: Representatives of the EU, Ukraine, and Russia have met to discuss the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement/ Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), which will be provisionally applied from January 1, 2016.
During the meeting, the parties discussed concerns raised by Russia. The European Commission said that “while some of the issues can be addressed in the context of the existing flexibilities available in the DCFTA, and others in the context of the current bilateral or trilateral and plurilateral cooperation frameworks, the Parties have agreed to intensify their efforts and task their experts to achieve practical solutions to the concerns raised by Russia.”
In the area of customs cooperation, they agreed to: maintain and further improve customs data exchange and electronic verification of origins; cooperate on issues such as tackling fraud; and consider beginning talks to revise rules of origin included in the Commonwealth of Independent States free trade agreement. Meanwhile, the EU committed to engage in informal dialogue on customs cooperation with Russia and provide expert advice and technical support during bilateral Ukraine-Russia discussions.
On technical barriers to trade, a dedicated working group will be established to minimize the impact of associated regulatory changes.
