Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine outlines prospects for signing FTA

“Our common goal for trade turnover is $10 billion, as our leaders said. Increasing trade and investment, deepening cooperation in some areas, such as agriculture and defense industry, is quite possible,” Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Turkey to Ukraine Yağmur Ahmet Güldere said in an interview with Anadolu news agency.

At the same time, he noted that achieving the goal of a $10 billion trade turnover a year would also depend on the signing of a free trade agreement.

“It would be difficult to reach the level of $10 billion without signing a free trade agreement between the two countries,” the agency quoted the diplomat as saying.

Güldere also noted that the economies of Ukraine and Turkey complement each other, and the threats that representatives of both countries see in the signing of the FTA for certain sectors may not prove true but rather bring positive impulses for development.

As reported, on August 7, President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at a press conference following the talks with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara that it was time to complete negotiations on creating a free trade area between Ukraine and Turkey. Erdoğan noted that Ukraine-Turkey trade turnover had totaled about $4 billion in 2018.

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