A Free Trade Area (FTA) of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and that of the European Union differ significantly in conceptual terms. This was disclosed by Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin during the international conference "Ukraine's European integration progress during the presidency of Poland in the EU: Expectations and prospects for the future" in Kyiv on Monday.

"EU's FTA and CIS's FTA mean free trade, but conceptually it is completely different things. The very model of a FTA of the CIS is totally different than the model of a FTA with the EU," he emphasized.

According to Klimkin, a FTA with the European Union is based, in most areas, on the integration components and the dynamics of European integration, "what will Ukraine and the European Union want". A FTA with CIS, in turn, is actually "a desire to create conditions for the World Trade Organization for the CIS space".

Additionally, the diplomat says, the CIS space in trade sense is very uneven. "Some of its participants, such as Ukraine or Moldova, quite successfully operate under WTO rules. There are countries that in the near future may accede to the WTO (Russia, Kazakhstan), but there are countries that are yet too far from joining it," Klimkin underscored.




Ukrinform