To Europe on schedule

Ukraine and the European Commission have confirmed their readiness to establish the free trade zone. It was reported by the press service of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, in reference to his telephone conversation with Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. The parties have agreed upon their readiness to start implementation of a deep and across-the-board free trade area (FTA) between Ukraine and the European Union on January 1, 2016.

But is business ready for an outright shift to European rules already in four months? The question has been forwarded to Valerii PIATNYTSKY, former Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, Government Commissioner in matters of European integration of Ukraine.

“Regardless of the free trade zone being established or not, the Ukrainian business should adhere to the European rules if they want to trade in Europe. What does it mean? It means adopting the relevant sanitary regulations as soon as possible and embracing the appropriate quality standards. The domestic entrepreneurs have been doing this for many years already. Someone has succeeded in this regard, someone manages not so well. The thing is that Ukrainian companies have already been present on the European market.

“But European rules are also a subject to change, because nothing is forever. Therefore, adaptation to the European market is a constant process. If you look on the industry branches, the agriculture is ready to successfully trade in Europe, and it does so. Of course, there are certain problematic moments, such as the supply of dairy products. But this is a task for the producers themselves: they should show the European regulators the entire chain of production and supply of raw materials to convince them of the safety of their products. Much is still to be done in regard of the processing of agricultural products. Currently, exports to the EU are predominantly agrarian raw materials, but we would like to increase the quota of finished products with greater added value.

“The metallurgy has always been the industry leader. Currently, there is a decline in production due to objective reasons. The situation is similar in the chemical production, for the main obstacle there is the cost of gas. However, these industry branches have long been ready to work with the EU, because they have modern production lines. In the oil refining there are some doubts regarding the lack of its own raw material and the need of modernization, but nevertheless this industry is able to enter the EU market.

“A good example of preparation to the European rules is shown by the automotive industry. Over the years, Ukraine has become a very powerful manufacturer of car components. In this area, several supply lines to European companies have been developed, the clusters have formed. Only two or three steps are left to go before we would be able to assemble our own cars in Ukraine. This is entirely possible.

“The services are also encouraging, especially in the field of IT-technology. That is, we are ready to work with the EU by their rules in their entirety. Otherwise, Europe would not simply let us do that. Although there are companies that do not view this market as a number-one priority for them, and thus in no need to embrace the European regulations.”