Ukraine

During a recently concluded trade and development mission to Ukraine, Canadian Minister of International Trade, Ed Fast, sought to deliver three main messages. 

The first was that Canada would continue to be a steadfast and trusted partner in Ukraine, reaffirming its recognition of the enormous security and economic challenges facing the country today.  The second was to renew negotiations towards a Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement, which follows a political commitment made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during his visit to Canada last September. 

Finally, the Minister’s mission announced an additional $52 million in development assistance and economic support to Ukraine.  This money will be used to support four specific economic initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable economic growth in Ukraine.

Overall, the trade and development mission – which was Fast’s second one in Ukraine in less than six months – focused on greater trade and improved social and economic conditions in Ukraine.  While in Kyiv, the Minister met with his counterpart, Aivaras Abromavičius, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Oleksii Pavlenko, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, and Natalia Jaresko, Minister of Finance, as well as with Canadian and Ukrainian business leaders. 

“In my meetings with [the] ministers, I was really impressed with their commitment to strong governance within government institutions,” stated Fast in an interview with Ukrainian Echo.  “Governance is a very important aspect of a strong democracy, and that requires support from countries around the world, specifically Canada, who have had many years of sound governance.”

The four projects being supported by the newly announced $52 million will focus on small and medium sized dairy business development, grain storage and marketing cooperatives, assisting Ukraine’s national and subnational governments to develop and implement transitional and long-term governance and economic reforms, and continued Canadian assistance to Ukraine’s Economic Advisory Council.   

The dairy project will assist 10,000 dairy farmers in four of Ukraine’s most important dairy-producing regions – Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Kherson, and Ivano-Frankivsk – to improve the quantity and quality of the milk they produce, establish more successful farm businesses, and increase their household incomes.  The project will also assist with establishing dairy cooperatives following Canadian best practices, which will allow farmers to connect with local institutions and businesses that they would otherwise not be able to access on their own.

Similarly, Canada will be lending its expertise to Ukraine’s grain industry to address limitations of small and medium-sized grain producers.  “Like Ukraine, Canada is one of the world’s large grain producers,” Fast stated, and from its many years of experience in storage and seed technology Canada will be able to help Ukrainian grain farmers build capacity, “helping them to maximize the value of cooperatives, to market their grain around the world, and to share best practices in the area of grain production.”

$18.8 million of the development assistance has been earmarked for Agriteam Canada, which will provide expert deployment to assist with governance and economic reforms at the national and subnational levels of Ukrainian government.  Activities within this project will include developing and implementing transparency and anticorruption policies and programming, coaching officials to plan, coordinate, and implement reform plans in priority sectors, and coaching government representatives and civil society organizations to promote citizens’ participation in public decision making.

Also benefitting from the development assistance is Canada’s continuing support of Ukraine’s Economic Advisory Council, both financially and by providing expertise.  Canadian professor Dr. Basil Kalymon, of Western University, heads the group of leading international economic experts, which has been extensively consulted by the government of Ukraine in its efforts to stabilize the economy and implement the necessary reforms to return to growth. 

In their discussions surrounding a Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement, Fast and Abromavičius spoke at length not only about eliminating tariff barriers, but also about the non-tariff challenges that companies face when doing business in their respective countries.  “It was a very positive meeting, and both of us are firmly committed to now concluding these trade negotiations,” said Fast.

Work on the free trade agreement is now underway.  “I expect we’ll see further negotiations take place in February and in the months to come,” the Minister stated, but would not commit to a specific timeframe when asked when the negotiations are expected to be concluded, noting that potentially changing circumstances could disrupt preset timelines. 

“I was extremely encouraged by my counterpart [Minister Abromavičius] and his vision for the country and his commitment to liberalizing trade within Ukraine,” said Fast.  “We’ve made it very clear that we see these negotiations as being unique in that this is not only about Canadian self-interest, it’s about Canada doing its part to allow Ukraine to restore its economy and embrace a prosperous future.”

Ukraine is a priority country under Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan and one of Canada’s development countries of focus.  With this most recently announced $52 million in development assistance and economic support, the Government of Canada has contributed more than $315 million in assistance to Ukraine, which includes support for economic stabilization, democracy and human rights, humanitarian assistance, and security.  This includes a $200 million bilateral loan to help Ukraine during its difficult transition period.

Kalyna Kardash