Canadian Lawmakers Introduce New Free Trade Agreement With Ukraine
As Inside Logistics reported, lawmakers in Canada’s House of Commons have introduced an updated free trade agreement (FTA) with Ukraine. The revised FTA includes new dedicated chapters and provisions on trade in services (including financial services), investment, temporary entry for business persons, telecommunications, digital trade, labor, and the environment, and on other issues.
Lawmakers also have added new chapters on inclusive trade in order to ensure the benefits of FTA are more widely shared, including in the areas of small and medium-sized enterprises and trade and gender. The updated draft also includes the first-ever Trade and Indigenous Peoples chapter that Canada or Ukraine has ever included in a concluded FTA.
Inside Logistics said that, in 2021, the value of total bilateral trade between Canada and Ukraine was $447 million ($220 million in exports and $227 million in imports). That number was a peak for trade between the two countries. Trade fell to $422 million in 2022 ($150 million in exports and $272 million in imports) due primarily to the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.