Türkiye ratifies free trade agreement with Ukraine

Türkiye ratified the agreement on the free trade area (FTA) with Ukraine.

Hurriyet Daily News reported this, referring to the Official Gazette of Türkiye.

The Free Trade Agreement was signed on February 3, 2022.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan approved the agreement with the annexes on August 1. The notification of the agreement's ratification was published in the Official Gazette of Türkiye on Friday, August 2.

The day before, the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko arrived in Türkiye. After meeting with her, the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye, Ömer Bolat, said that the volume of bilateral trade between the two states in 2023 was 7.3 billion dollars.

According to him, the FTA is expected to increase the volume to 10 billion dollars in a short period.

Bolat emphasized that Türkiye and Ukraine will continue strengthening cooperation and increasing mutual trade and investment based on common interests.

As Rubryka reported, the agreement on free trade between Ukraine and Türkiye provides, in particular, the cancellation of import duties by Türkiye for about 93.4% of industrial goods and 7.6% of agricultural goods.

After the transition periods (3-7 years) end, Ankara will cancel import duties on 1.5% more industrial goods and 28.5% more agricultural goods.

For its part, Ukraine will cancel import duties for about 56% of industrial goods and 11.5% of agricultural goods.

After the end of the transitional periods (2-5 years for industrial goods, 2-10 years for agricultural goods), Kyiv will cancel import duties for another 43.2% of industrial goods and 53.7% for agricultural goods.

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It should be noted that the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko, met with the Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Türkiye Huzayfe Yılmaz as part of a working visit to Türkiye.

According to the negotiations' results, Ukraine and Türkiye will intensify cooperation in the medical field. Potential directions were discussed.

It was also reported that on August 1, a momentous event took place at the STM shipyard in Istanbul: the second Ada-class corvette being built for Ukraine, named "Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi," was launched.

As noted in the publication, the ceremony was marked by a high level of secrecy; to comply with security measures, the event details were not disclosed. Among the guests of honor at the event were First Lady Olena Zelenska, Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, Commander of the Naval Forces of Ukraine's armed forces Oleksii Neizhpapa.