EFTA and Ukraine meet for first round of negotiations in view of modernisation of free trade agreement

From 3 to 4 April 2024, delegations from the EFTA States and Ukraine met by videoconference for the first round of negotiations in view of the modernisation and expansion of their free trade agreement (FTA). The EFTA States and Ukraine originally signed an FTA in 2010. The modernisation process was formally launched during the EFTA Ministerial Meeting in June 2023.

Thordur Jonsson, Director of Trade Agreementsat the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, acted as the EFTA spokesperson, while the Ukrainian delegation was headed by Vitaliy Kunatenko, Deputy Head of the Department of Trade Agreements and Export Development at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

The parties held in-depth discussions and made good progress. They confirmed the conclusion of the chapters on government procurement, trade and sustainable development, technical cooperation, and small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as provisions on technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and the annex on trade facilitation. Good progress was also made in other fields under negotiation, notably on trade in goods, intellectual property rights, digital trade, and legal and horizontal issues.

EFTA's full report on the first round is available here.

Economic relations between the EFTA States and Ukraine

Bilateral EFTA–Ukraine merchandise trade reached almost EUR 1 025 million in 2023. With an average growth rate over the last five years of 4.6% for imports and 7.1% for exports, the main imports to the EFTA States were fats and oils (EUR 46 million) and woven apparel or clothing accessories (EUR 19 million), while most exports to Ukraine were fish and crustaceans (EUR 216 million) and pharmaceutical products (EUR 171 million).

Read more about merchandise trade between EFTA and Ukraine here.