News date: 7 October 2021
On October 5, 2021 Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm held the conference “Trade Wars: Art of Protection”. The conference was organized with support from Ukrainian Business & Trade Association (UBTA). Among partners of the conference were the Ukrainian Association of Manufacturers of Ferroalloys and Other Electrometallurgical Products (UkrFA), the Association of Cement Producers of Ukraine Ukrcement, the Association of Enterprises Ukrmetalurgprom, the Association Ukrkondprom, he Ukrainian Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Producers Association, the Ukrainian Corporation for Viticulture and Wine Production Industry Ukrvinprom and the European Business Association (EBA).
The conference was moderated by Olena Omelchenko, the Partner and Head of International Trade Practice at Ilyashev & Partners.
Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, opened the conference with a report about priorities of Ukraine in the process of Ukraine-EU Association Agreement revision. Among other things, Olha Stefanishyna drew attention to the strengthening trend of protectionism in international trade, which, in its turn, gives Ukraine the opportunity to resort to protectionism in its own economic interests. The speaker reminded that the process of Ukraine-EU Association Agreement revision was launched last year. She outlined the main problems in relations with the EU that are currently under discussion, and commented on the arguments appealed by Ukraine.
During the first conference session, participants discussed the issue of protectionism, changes in trade policies, the pharmaceutical industry and hidden non-tariff barriers, the requirements of the EU’s “green policy”, namely, Green Deal and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), to producers engaged in exports of agricultural products and metallurgy.
Foreign economic vectors of Ukraine were discussed by Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine – Trade Representative of Ukraine, Nazar Bobytskyi, Director of the Brussels office of UBTA, Stanislav Zinchenko, GMK Center CEO and Oleksandr Dombrovskyi, Chairman of the Board of Civic Union “Global 100RE Ukraine”, President of MHP Eco Energy.
The second conference session was dedicated to balancing of the interests of producers and consumers, the cooperation between the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the Ministry of Economy in trade investigations, the reaction of business to different positions of the two regulators, and trade restrictions applied by Belarus, blocking access of Ukrainian goods to Belarusian market.
The discussion was joined by Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine – Trade Representative of Ukraine, Anzhelika Konoplianko, Deputy Chair of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine – State Commissioner, Andrii Lytvyn, Deputy Director of Export Promotion Office, Svitlana Mykhailovska, Deputy Director of EBA, Oleksandr Kalenkov, President of Ukrmetalurgprom, Volodymyr Kucherenko, General Director of Ukrvinprom, Pavlo Kachur, Chairman of Ukrcement.
The conference was attended by more than 100 Ukrainian and foreign business executives, representatives of the public sector, industrial enterprises, industry associations and media.