UKRAINE’S EXPERIENCES ON DEVELOPING TRADE AND TRADE POLICY RELATIONS WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION

Union and Ukraine have developed an increasingly dynamic rela-tionship. Ukraine is a priority partner country within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership. Relations between the EU and Ukraine are currently based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) which en-tered into force in 1998. At the Paris Summit in 2008 the leaders of the EU and Ukraine agreed that an Association Agreement should be the successor agreement to the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement. The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement is the first of a new generation of Association Agreements with Eastern Partnership countries. Negotiations on this comprehen-sive, ambitious and innovative Agreement between the EU and Ukraine were launched in March 2007. In February 2008, fol-lowing confirmation of Ukraine’s WTO membership, the EU and Ukraine launched negotiations on a Deep and Comprehen-sive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) as a core element of the Associ-ation Agreement. At the 15th Ukraine-EU Summit of 19 December 2011, the EU leaders and President Yanukovych noted that a common under-standing on the text of the Association Agreement had bee