Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on
Saturday that Ukraine wants to develop and deepen economic relations
with Russia. "We have traditional relations of friendship with Russia
where Ukraine used to sell 38% of its produce and is now selling just
18%. We want to develop our interests in this market. But what we need
is a different policy and other mechanisms. That is why we talk about
the CIS and those Common Economic Space initiatives, which are vitally
important for us," Yushchenko, who is currently visiting Georgia, told
a briefing in the mountain resort town of Borzhomi, Itar-Tass reported.
"I spoke against the Common Economic Space when I
was in parliament because parliament was little informed about the
goals, values and ideas of this space. Today, when we pursue a
dialogue, we say that Ukraine has three goals in the Common Economic
Space: the creation of a free trade zone; the system of harmonized
customs relations in order to ease the movement of goods, services and
workforce," Yushchenko went on to say.
He noted that Ukraine and Russia should establish
a system of single tariffs if they want to open mutual markets.
"Services and goods should move in one regime," Yushchenko added.
