Ukrainian businessmen ask President to delay EU free trade deal

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prominent Ukrainian businessmen on Tuesday, November 12 asked the country’s president to postpone the signing of a landmark deal with the European Union, saying they needed more time to prepare for the planned free-trade zone, RIA Novosti reported.

President Viktor Yanukovych discussed Ukraine’s bid for closer ties with EU at a meeting with members of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the presidential press service said.

“Let’s put off the signing of the agreement for one year, if it’s possible. Give us an opportunity to prepare, give us a chance to buy equipment. This important request comes not only from me, but from other industrialists as well,” Valentyn Landyk, the president of the Donetsk-based refrigerator maker Nord Group, said at the meeting.

Georgy Skudar, president of the machine maker NKMZ, said Ukrainian manufacturers currently face problems with selling their goods to members of the Russian-led Customs Union.

“We are now talking about the association agreement with Europe, but no one there will welcome us,” he said, adding that his company was unlikely to benefit from the free-trade zone and to be allowed to enter European markets.

Ukraine has repeatedly rejected Russia’s overtures to join the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and is instead due to sign a series of free-trade and association deals with the European Union this month.

Russian presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev warned that the EU deal would be “suicidal” for Ukraine because it would trigger a permanent tightening of customs procedures for Ukrainian goods entering Russia.