Unsuccessful EU-Russia-Ukraine trade talks to prompt cancellation of Russian preferential trade regime for Kyiv – Russia envoy to EU
Trade preferences enjoyed by Kyiv in the CIS free trade zone will be annulled unless the EU-Russia-Ukraine negotiations regarding the implementation of trade and economic provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement are a success, Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov has said.
"The 'trialogue' is in progress. Yet the situation is not easy. Let me remind you that a decision to suspend the enforcement of trade and economic provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was made in September 2014. This is the last, fifteenth month," Chizhov told Interfax in an interview in Brussels.
"If we fail to come to terms before the end of December - this probability actually exists and it is quite high - this still does not mean that these provisions and the agreement as a whole will take final effect. There is an important nuance they have been trying to disregard here: the Association Agreement has not been ratified by some EU member countries and the European Union itself so trade and economic provisions can be applied only on a temporary basis. Indeed, this is a formality. From the point of view of our interests, there is no difference between their temporary and final validity - the effect will be approximately the same," the senior Russian diplomat said.
"Preferences given to Ukraine under the CIS Free Trade Agreement of 2011 will be annulled as a forced countermeasure and such a universally practiced regime as the most favored nation will be put into place. The name itself suggests that this [regime] is not discriminative. It will at least be incorrect to dub this step sanctions," he said.
The representative said he deemed it necessary to clarify the situation because "our Ukrainian colleagues and many Western sources, including your colleagues, journalists, are confusing two things either deliberately or unconsciously."
"The first thing is the cancellation of preferences and the reinstatement of the most favored nation regime. The other thing is that Ukraine will be subject to the agricultural embargo imposed by Russia as a countermeasure against anti-Russian sanctions of the EU and some other counties. The logic is clear and understandable even to a primary school student. Ukraine joined the anti-Russian sanctions and Russia obviously had the right and the possibility to apply those countermeasures to Ukraine as soon as Ukraine had done so," the head of the Russian diplomatic mission to the EU said.
"However, with the purpose of maintaining a positive climate in the trilateral negotiations, which can be seen as a goodwill gesture by itself, the Russian side has delayed the enforcement of these measures until the end of the negotiations. I think the issue will be given an additional consideration if they have a positive outcome. But if the outcome is not positive, Ukraine will have to pay a higher price for joining the anti-Russian sanctions, speaking the language our American colleagues love so much," he said.
Chizhov declined to comment on a statement of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin claiming that the Russian delegation made proposals inadmissible to Kyiv and behaved in an unconstructive way at the latest round of ministerial negotiations.
"As for Minister Klimkin, let the aforesaid statement be on his conscience. In fact, Russia proposed a constructive compromise. Besides, those proposals were made in the form of amendments and additions to the draft final document of the negotiations elaborated by the European Commission. To my knowledge, Ukraine did not make any proposals regarding that draft. If Ukraine were interested in a positive outcome of those negotiations, it would have probably not made unfounded accusations against Russia but would have worked in a more constructive way," the Russian representative to the EU said.
