New Delhi: The 4th Meeting of India-Ukraine Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation, under the India-Ukraine Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, Industrial and Cultural Cooperation was held today in New Delhi.
Indian delegation was led by Bidyut Behari Swain, Additional Secretary, Foreign Trade, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Ukrainian Side was led by Oleksiy Rozhkov, Director of Directorate for International Trade and Economic Cooperation and European Integration of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.
A protocol was signed at the end of the meeting. The protocol deals with review of trade, cooperation in the field of small and medium entrepreneurship, cooperation in the field of technical regulation, public-private partnership and investment, agriculture, facilitating the access of Ukrainian food products to the market of India, energy sector, finance, granting Ukraine market economy status within the framework of anti-dumping investigations, and banking and cooperation in tourism.
Both Sides agreed that trade was far below the potential and there was a need to step up their cooperation to enlarge the trade basket and increase the bilateral trade and investment. There is trade deficit on the part of Indian Side and both Sides agreed to find out the modalities to reduce it further.
India and Ukraine have identified potential sectors where both Sides could engage in bilateral trade since presently the share of trade between both Sides is quite low as compared to total trade made with the rest of the World. Both Sides agreed to share the list of products which they would like to trade.
The Sides agreed to provide all possible assistance in establishing and maintaining cooperation between Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine, Ukrainian National Committee of ICC, Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs with Trade Associations and Export Promotion Councils of Indian Side in establishing B2B contacts.
Both Sides have agreed to hold the 5th meeting of the Working Group on Trade, Economic and Cooperation in Kyiv, Ukraine. The dates of the 5th meeting will be agreed through diplomatic channels.
