Ukraine concludes WTO talks with Armenia, Columbia
16:44 | 17/ 03/ 2006
RIA Novosti, Russia
March 17 2006
KIEV, March 17 (RIA Novosti, Olga Bernatskaya) – Ukraine has concluded
talks with Armenia and Columbia in its bid to join the World Trade
Organization, the country’s economics minister said Friday.
“We have concluded the WTO accession talks with Armenia and Columbia,”
Arseniy Yatsenyuk said, adding that there have also been positive
developments in the negotiations with Australia.
The minister said that the country’s hopes about accelerating the
negotiating process after it signed a bilateral agreement with the
United States had materialized.
A presidential administration official previously said that the
country could complete talks on joining the body governing global
trade as early as at the end of March 2006.
Ukraine has signed protocols with the majority of WTO members,
including with the United States on March 2, on mutual access to
commodities and services markets. In mid-February, the U.S. granted
it market economy status after the European Union declared Ukraine
a market economy at the end of 2005.