Free Trade Area With EU Results in Collapse of Ukrainian Industry – Opposition

The European Union is the only party that profits from the Ukrainian-EU free trade area, while this agreement resulted in a collapse of the Ukrainian industry and deepened the economic crisis, Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the opposition movement Ukrainian Choice, said on Friday.

KIEV (Sputnik) – The European market is still closed for Ukraine as the quotas for EU duty free import of Ukrainian goods are very low, the Ukrainian politician noted.

"It is time to admit that operates in the interests of only one party – the European Union. And for Ukraine the result of signing the free trade area is a collapse of the industry, deepening systemic economic crisis and the cheerless prospect of turning into an EU raw materials appendage instead of promises expansion to the ‘large and high-potential’ European market," Medvedchuk wrote in his blog.

Medvedchuk added that the Ukrainian export had been decreasing for three years while the country’s export to the European Union increased only by 1.1 percent within 10 months since the free trade agreement entered into force.

In 2014, the European Union signed an agreement with Ukraine to deepen political association and economic integration. Ukraine had to implement a series of political and economic reforms to gain free-trade access to the EU market.