Trade between Ukraine and Israel will reach $1 bln in five years - ambassador
He said this in an interview with Ukrinform, while commenting on the free trade agreement signed between Ukraine and Israel on January 21, 2019.
According to the ambassador, expert studies show that the parties will increase trade by 15% over the next five years. "This means that we will have trade turnover of about $1 billion between Ukraine and Israel," the diplomat said.
Lion said that agriculture would remain the main area of sale for Ukraine since 63% of Ukrainian exports to Israel are agricultural products. "This is very important for us to have such imports from Ukraine," he said.
As reported, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers approved a draft free trade agreement between Ukraine and Israel on November 21.
According to the estimates of the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade, in the near future, the agreement will help increase Ukraine's exports to Israel and improve the trade balance between Ukraine and Israel.
The effect of the free trade agreement between Ukraine and Israel will not apply to the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions until the full restoration of the constitutional order of the state of Ukraine on them.
According to the Export Strategy of Ukraine, in particular the Road Map for Strategic Trade Development for 2017-2021, Israel is among top 20 promising markets for the export of Ukrainian products and is also a major trading partner of Ukraine in the Middle East region. The most promising areas for cooperation are agriculture, tourism, hydrocarbon processing, communications, medicine, energy efficiency, and ecology.
