During Zelenskyi’s trip to the USA, we want to begin negotiations on free trade with the States – Liubchenko

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Oleksii Liubchenko spoke about the areas of international trade currently being negotiated.

As he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, the EU wasn't the only partner with which negotiations were underway.

The Minister announced that during the working trip of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United States, it's planned to begin negotiations on free trade with the United States.

Liubchenko informed that negotiations on free trade with Turkey were already in the final stage and preliminary work had been carried out to expand the free trade agreement with Canada.

"I hope that this year we'll complete negotiations on expanding the FTA to the sphere of services and mutual protection of investments. The Canadian side is interested, there is a great investment potential concentrated in private pension funds," the minister said.

He also said that the work of the joint intergovernmental commission with Kazakhstan was unblocked, the free trade agreement with Northern Macedonia and Moldova was renewed, a meeting with the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank was held, and preparatory work was held for talks with Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan.

Oleksii Liubchenko also noted that systematic work with China was currently underway, coordinated by Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishina.

"We've launched a joint study of the possibility of a free trade agreement. We'll know the results next year, based on which a political decision will be made to start negotiations. We're also actively working to prepare for negotiations with Indonesia and Vietnam," Liubchenko said.

He also noted that trade with China could become a strategic vector if Ukraine trades in processed products.

"Ukraine is now trying to focus on its national interests, being open to all countries with the same vectors of development. Finally, we have a strategy from which we've identified growth points, we also have a budget declaration and a forecast of socio-economic development for three years. We repeat at all meetings with representatives of foreign countries: Ukraine, like every country, has its own vectors of development. If they intersect, there will be synergy and results for both countries," the Minister of Economy said.