EU-Ukraine Trade

From Yahoo:

"EU-Ukraine trade deal comes into force, angers Moscow"

 

 Ukraine's free-trade deal with the EU comes into effect Friday, coinciding with the start of Moscow's food embargo against Kiev that will force the impoverished former Soviet republic to revisit its economic model  The free-trade accord is part of the broader EU Association Agreement -- signed at the end of June 2014 -- and stands at the heart of the drastic deterioration of Ukraine's relations with Russia, furious at seeing its Soviet-era satellite turn to the West. Ukraine, whose market has been traditionally oriented toward Russia, will now have to turn itself toward the European market and abide by its rules.  "The agreement will contribute to the modernisation and diversification of the Ukrainian economy and will create additional incentives for reform," the European Commission said in a statement on Thursday.  Brussels also said the deal would help Ukraine improve its business climate and attract foreign investment, a view shared by Yegor Perelygin, an analyst at UniCredit bank. The road to Ukraine's adoption of the deal has been peppered with obstacles.  In November 2013, Ukraine's then pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych rejected the association agreement, triggering pro-European protests that led to his downfall and eventually to the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has left more than 9,000 people dead.  Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has put the cost of Moscow's measures to his country at some $600 million.  President Petro Poroshenko admitted earlier this month that Russia's retaliatory move would cause "damage" to Ukraine's economy but said he was "ready to pay the price" and press on with efforts to join a European Union free-trade zone.  He blasted the embargo in his New Year address, saying Moscow was trying to "economically strangle" Ukraine.  "Moscow closing its market to Ukrainian merchandise, a powerful economic attack, is another part of the war (...) against us," Poroshenko said. Kiev has vowed to strike back with its own measures and is expected to announce a list of banned Russian products in the near future. 

 

 

 

^ The Ukraine has had to suffer a lot in the past few years in order to retain it's independence. While it has dealt with Russian annexing the Crimea and supplying the ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine the Ukrainians continue to work hard to modernize and improve themselves. The main difference between the Russians and the Ukrainians is: the Russian people are currently suffering hard economic times because of self-imposed isolation and a national paranoia that everyone non-Russian is out to get them while the Ukrainian people are suffering hard economic times because of the Russian-backed war on their territory. I continue to have great respect for the Ukrainians who are struggling to remove not only the old Soviet influences but also the hard-lined Russian influences so that the Ukrainians can decide what is best for the Ukraine without outside influence. ^

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-ukraine-trade-deal-comes-force-angers-moscow-