On the sidelines of the European Parliament's plenary session on 13 September, its president Antonio Tajani and Estonia's Deputy Minister for European Affairs Matti Maasikas signed the regulation on the EU's autonomous trade preferences for certain Ukrainian agricultural and industrial products. These preferences come in addition to what has already been offered under the trade section of the EU-Ukraine association agreement since 1 January 2016.
The regulation opens additional annual duty-free quotas for three years from 1 October, with the exception of quotas for corn, wheat and barley (which still need the adoption of implementing regulations and will not enter into force until 1 January 2018).
The regulation also provides for the full removal of import duties on several industrial products such as fertilisers, colourings, pigments and other colouring substances, shoes, copper and aluminium, as well as television sets and sound recording equipment. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)