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EU offers Ukraine trade breaks worth EUR 500m/year

11 March 2014, 16:43 CET
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(STRASBOURG) - The EU will offer Ukraine trade breaks worth 500 million ($700 million) euros a year as an immediate gesture of support, European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday.

The Commission has "agreed a set of unilateral trade provisions ... equal to about 500 million euros per year," Barroso said.

This was "a concrete, tangible" measure of support for Ukraine, he added.

The savings will be made through reductions in tariffs agreed in a free trade accord negotiated with Kiev alongside an EU association pact which now-ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych ditched in November.

At a summit last week, EU leaders said they were ready to sign the political chapters of the association accord and to bring forward some parts of the trade deal -- notably tariff cuts -- in response to Russia's intervention in Crimea, home to its Black Sea fleet.

The also put together an aid package worth up to 11 billion euros aimed at helping the interim Kiev government put country's faltering economy back on track.

The measures announced Tuesday will have to be approved by EU leaders and by the European Parliament before elections in May, and Barroso called for their speedy approval.

If cleared, they would be effective at least from June to the end of the year, the Commission said in a separate statement.

"I would expect a positive impact on businesses and workers to be felt just weeks after this system comes into force," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said.

Brussels has repeatedly made clear the EU association accord and the free trade pact remain on the table to be signed in full, if the Kiev government agrees to do so.


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