During their meeting on September 22 Canada’s Prime Minister and Ukraine’s President signed the modernized Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA).
The original CUFTA entered into force in August 2017. Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary Ng, and Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, jointly launched negotiations to expand and modernize the CUFTA on January 27, 2022.
Substantive negotiations have resulted in a modernized CUFTA that will include dedicated new chapters on Cross-Border Trade in Services, Financial Services, Investment, Temporary Entry for Business Persons, Telecommunications, Trade and Gender, Trade and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Trade and Indigenous Peoples and Good Regulatory Practices. The new agreement will also include updated chapters on Digital Trade, Rules of Origin and Origin Procedures, Competition Policy, Monopolies and State Enterprises, Government Procurement, Environment, Labour, Development and Administration of Measures, and Transparency, Anti-Corruption and Responsible Business Conduct.
The modernized CUFTA will come into force when the two countries complete their legal and regulatory processes.
Links:
– Canada-Ukraine FTA Modernization: Summary of Negotiated Outcomes
– Full text of the modernized 2023 CUFTA (which is not yet in force)