Ukraine, Israel to hold talks on free trade in services next year - Ambassador Brodsky

Ukraine and Israel will start negotiations next year on the signing of an agreement on free trade in services, Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky has said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

"An agreement on a free trade area came into force in our country on January 1 this year. It removes duties on a fairly long list of goods to be supplied from Ukraine to Israel and from Israel to Ukraine. Next year we will begin negotiations on another agreement – on the FTA that will concern services. An agreement on this was reached during our president's visit to Ukraine," Brodsky said.

He added that this is a very important area, because Israel receives a lot of services, especially in the field of IT, in Ukraine.

"Today, Ukraine is a strategic direction for Israel in terms of outsourcing our services. More than 40% of Israel's outsourcing in the field of high technology goes to Ukraine," the ambassador said.

According to him, it is too early to say whether the future agreement will apply to health care, as negotiations have not yet begun.

"Most likely, it will be a general agreement that will cover different services in different areas," the diplomat said.

At the same time, he noted that medical services are a large component of economic relations between Israel and Ukraine, and cooperation in this area is developing very well.

op