Brussels, 23/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - This week, the Commission and Ukraine have initialled an agreement allowing Ukraine to export a volume of 606,824 tonnes of steel to the countries of the enlarged EU. The agreement, to be signed shortly, increases the volume of European imports from Ukraine to take account of the accession of ten new Member States. The Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy, has welcomed the agreement, which he feels respects traditional trade flows between Ukraine and the new Member States of the EU, and guarantees that increased demand for steel by European companies can be covered in full in 2004. These 606,824 tonnes will be divided as follows: flat products (80,700 tonnes), heavy plates (230,879 tonnes), other flat products (66,608 tonnes), beams (13,481 tonnes), wire rod (93,679 tonnes), other long products (122,170 tonnes). The Commission and the Ukrainian authorities have decided to start exploratory talks in early July to set the quantities for 2005.
On 7 June, the EU initialled a similar agreement with Russia. This agreement provides for the current quota (1,383,885 tonnes) of Russian imports into the enlarged EU to be increased by a further 438,000 tonnes. With Kazakhstan, an agreement was initialled on 25 May, providing for its current quota (113,500 tonnes) of steel imports to the EU to be increased by 28,000 tonnes.