Infrastructure Ministry hopes for G7's assistance in liberalizing international road haulage

"Over the past four years, since the conclusion of the Association Agreement, the trade turnover between Ukraine and the European Union has grown by more than 60%. This figure will scale up every year. At the same time, now we see that the Ukrainian exports are being artificially restricted on our borders with the EU,” Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said during a meeting with the G7 Ambassadors, Ukrinform reports with reference to the Ministry’s press service.

Therefore, the Ministry of Infrastructure relies on assistance in launching the negotiation process on the liberalization of international road haulage.

"Such a decision will help avoid a trade crisis, move away from the policy of restriction and containment, as well as significantly expand opportunities for cooperation between Ukraine and the G7 countries," Kubrakov added.

As reported, Ukraine is waiting for a response to its appeal to the European Commission to resolve the haulage permits dispute with Poland and is ready to go to international arbitration under the Association Agreement if no response is given. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olga Stefanishyna in early January.

According to the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Ukrainian economy has lost 500 million euros due to a lack of international road haulage permits since 2018.

In December, the Ministry of Infrastructure said that in 2022 Poland would provide 160,000 permits to Ukraine (while 204,500 are required), Hungary – 31,750 (45,000 required), and Romania – 18,500 (51,600 required).

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