Ukraine seeks to sign "industrial visa-free” deal with EU at next summit - Zelensky

That’s according to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky who spoke at a 23rd Ukraine-EU Summit in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"There is movement toward an ‘industrial visa-free agreement,’ important to Ukraine. As early as at the next EU-Ukraine Summit, we seek to sign this deal," Zelensky said.

According to the Ukrainian president, the parties have begun talks on updating customs tariffs and reviewing the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on February 17 that Ukraine hopes to sign with the European Union as early as this year an "industrial visa-free agreement," which will provide ample opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.

At the end of October last year, the EU launched a preliminary mission to assess readiness of Ukraine's quality infrastructure for the conclusion of the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA, or the industrial visa-free regime).

The Ukraine-EU Association Agreement lays down prospects of concluding the ACAA. Earlier, the government said the ACAA could potentially cover a fifth of Ukraine's exports to the EU, primarily engineering products, facilitating trade and lifting the image of Ukrainian products in global markets.

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