The signing by Ukraine of an agreement on the creation of a free trade area with CIS countries will not hamper the signing of an association agreement with the European Union, including the creation of a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU, Deputy Economy Minister Valeriy Piatnytsky said live on Channel 5.

"If we're talking about free trade agreements, any country could sign them as much as it needs and as it considers this necessary, and therefore, this does not contradict anything," he said.

"The agreement with the EU is not just an in-depth agreement. It actually is serious regulatory rapprochement, a change in rules, and the improvement of the institutional capacity to work on the internal European market. It's not just a trade agreement - it's an agreement for development. If we talk about the agreement with the CIS countries, then in the traditional sense of the word, it's an agreement on free trade, mainly in goods, and it's a simpler version, and this facilitates, rather than contradicts trade with our traditional trade partners in the CIS," Piatnytsky said.

It was reported earlier that the next, 18th round of talks on drafting an agreement on a free trade area between Ukraine and the European Union was to be held in Brussels in the second half of September 2011.

The European Commission and the Ukrainian authorities hope to sign the agreements on association and a free trade area with the EU this year.

UKRINFORM