"The signing of an agreement on FTA with Turkey will facilitate the export of products to this country for our cattle producers" - head of the USBA Iryna Palamar

Ukraine is one step closer to signing an agreement with Turkey on a free trade area (FTA). This was stated by First Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv on the results of the 11th meeting of the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Turkish Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, which took place under his chairmanship and the Minister of National Defense of the Turkish Republic Nurettin Canikli  on April 12 in Ankara (the Republic of Turkey).

This is reported by the website of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.

"The conclusion of the negotiation process on the conclusion of the Ukraine-Turkey Free Trade Agreement on mutually beneficial terms is one of the most important common tasks. We also pay great attention to improving the investment opportunities for the Turkish business, which we urge to participate in privatization in Ukraine, as well as actively participate in projects in infrastructure, energy, agriculture, industry, as well as education, science and culture," Stepan Kubiv said .

It bears reminding that the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association is actively engaged in establishing Ukrainian-Turkish trade ties in the direction of livestock products.

It was on the initiative and long fruitful work of the USBA that it became possible to open the export market of Ukrainian beef and cattle fat to Turkey.

The USBA has conducted a lot of work in this direction: numerous negotiations were held between the head of the USBA Iryna Palamar and the representatives of the Office of the Trade Adviser of the Turkish Embassy in Ukraine, as a result of which the Ukrainian side managed to convince potential partners of mutually beneficial cooperation, because Turkey considered Ukraine a sanitary dangerous country and had significant concerns about such cooperation.

For representatives of the Office of the Trade Advisor of Turkey in Ukraine, the USBA prepared and presented full analytical material on Ukraine on meat exports. This information was developed by the Turkish authorities and detailed in the on-line information request.

Also, at the initiative of the USBA, one of the key Turkish companies arrived in Ukraine, which will be the main potential buyer of cattle and meat products in Ukraine. This same Turkish company became a member of the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association and joined the team of its Ukrainian livestock enterprises, with whom it is ready to cooperate.

Later, the Turkish authorities officially confirmed their readiness to open their market for the export of live cattle and meat from Ukraine. To this end, the Turkish side sent to the State  Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection a detailed questionnaire on the export of beef to Turkey, which contained detailed information on general information about Ukraine, its geographical aspects, legislation, veterinary medicine, etc.

"There is still a lot of painstaking work ahead of us," Iryna Palamar, the head of the USBA commented. - Checks by the Turkish side of this information, as well as the audit of Ukrainian enterprises will take a certain period of time before Ukraine will receive the right to export cattle live weight and beef meat. The final stage will be the signing of a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Turkey, respectively, for the export and import of products. The final document will be a certificate. After that, the Turkish market will be open for Ukraine. This is the ultimate goal over which our Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association has been working for more than one month. We are constantly in touch with the Turkish side and are working hard to accelerate the receipt of the export permit. And the signing of an agreement on a free trade zone with Turkey, I think, will facilitate the export of products for our cattle producers.