Ukraine and the European Union have initialed the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, Iryna Friz, the press secretary to Economic Development and Trade Minister Petro Poroshenko, has informed Ukrainian News.
"Yesterday [July 19] the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement was initialed... Every page was signed," she said.
After that, according to the procedure, Ukraine and the EU will be conducting negotiations on preparation for execution of the document.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in May said Ukraine had agreed to unprecedented compromises in the process of talks with the European Union on the Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.
The Ukraine-EU Association Agreement initialed on March 30, but it must be signed and ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament, the European Parliament, and the EU member-states' parliaments to enter into force.
The EU regards the criminal cases against Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and current leader of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Association party, and former interior affairs minister Yurii Lutsenko (the unofficial leader of the People's Self-Defence party) the main obstacle for signing the agreement.
The press-conference of the half-year performance in the banking sector, real situation in economy and forecasts
