Canada and Ukraine will update their free trade agreement, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on April 11 after meeting in Toronto with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced new sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and pledged fresh military support for Kyiv.
Shmyhal announced that he and Trudeau signed a joint declaration ending negotiations on an updated Free Trade Agreement.
“Based on its content, this is an exceptional agreement that will activate our trade with Canada and create unique opportunities for Ukrainian business," he said.
The new agreement is to provide for "the most modern regime of liberalization” of markets and investments, Shmyhal said.
“We are moving to the working principle of 'everything that is not prohibited is allowed'” in the move to open markets, Shmyhal said. “All prohibitions and exceptions are carefully defined and regulated by the articles of the agreement."
The new agreement is also expected to update the chapter on digital trade and facilitate the export of Ukrainian goods to Canada.
Ukrainian businesses will be able to export products to Canada without tariffs even if the components of these products originate in the European Union, Britain, Israel or within the European Free Trade Association.
“This approach encourages foreign businesses to create production facilities in Ukraine and includes us in global production chains," Shmyhal explained.
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The original Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Canada entered into force on August 1, 2017. There was no information on when the updated agreement would be signed.
Trudeau announced that Canada will send 21,000 assault rifles, 38 machine guns, and 2.4 million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine and impose sanctions on 14 Russian individuals and 34 entities, including security targets linked to the Wagner mercenary group.
"We will continue to support Ukraine with everything needed for as long as necessary," Trudeau said after his meeting with Shmyhal.
Canada has committed more than 8 billion Canadian dollars ($5.9 billion) to Ukraine in financial, military, humanitarian, and other assistance since January 2022, a month before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Canada is also imposing sanctions on nine entities tied to the Belarusian financial sector to further pressure Russia's "enablers in Belarus," Trudeau said.
Trudeau also pointed the finger toward Russia for an outage of some Canadian government websites on April 11, saying cyberattacks were an "unsurprising" act by Russian hackers.
"It's not uncommon for Russian hackers to target countries as they are showing their steadfast support for Ukraine," Trudeau said, adding that Canada was not going to be dissuaded by such attacks.