1ST LEAD Ukraine, EU set to implement free trade deal without Russian blessing …
Brussels (dpa) – Ukraine and the European Union failed Monday to win
over Russia on a free trade agreement that they will implement next
week, adding to the deep divisions between the three sides.
The free trade deal will grant Ukraine tariff-free access to the EU‘s
giant market and is expected to boost the country‘s struggling
economy. Russia has long been critical of the trade pact, amid
concerns that it could negatively impact its economy.
In a bid to address Moscow‘s concerns, Kyiv and Brussels had agreed
to delay the free trade agreement by a year and hold more than 20
rounds of three-ways talks. A final meeting on Monday failed to
deliver a breakthrough, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.
“We were quite close in finding some of the practical solutions and I
think had there been a will, we would have been able to do that,” she
said after meeting with Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei
Ulyukayev and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Brussels.
“However, today there was not enough flexibility from the Russian
side to do that,” she added. “There was no agreement, so this
exercise is now over.”
Some of the economic concerns brought forward by Russia did not
appear to be “real,” Malmstrom said.
The EU was also “surprised” by Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s
decision last week to end his country‘s free trade deal with Ukraine,
Malmstrom noted, arguing that it went against the spirit of the
three-way talks and of a peace deal agreed for eastern Ukraine.
Russian officials have argued that their trade measures, which also
include a ban on Ukrainian food exports, are not linked to the
EU-Ukraine free trade deal.
Malmstrom suggested that the impact of the sanctions, while painful,
will be limited since trade between Ukraine and Russia had already
decreased considerably.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during a visit to Brussels
last week that his country is ready to pay the price of Russian trade
retaliation “for our freedom and for our European choice.”
The free trade agreement between Kyiv and the EU is at the heart of
the current crisis in Ukraine.
A first attempt to finalize the deal had failed in 2013, triggering
protests in Kyiv that led to the ouster of Ukraine‘s pro-Russian
president, followed by Russia‘s annexation of Ukraine‘s Crimea region
and a pro-Russian separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.
Relations between the EU and Moscow have since fallen to their lowest
level since the Cold War.