United States and Ukraine have recently entered into a Trade and Investment Cooperation Agreement (the "TICA"). Under the TICA, signed by U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab and Ukraine's Minister of Economy Bohdan Danylyshyn, a bilateral council on trade and investment will be established. The parties believe that the TICA will provide a forum to address trade issues and help build trade and investment relations between the United States and Ukraine.

The TICA is expected to provide a solid foundation for discussion on a full range of bilateral trade and investment issues. The agreement provides for the formation of a joint U.S.-Ukraine Council on Trade and Investment (the "Council"), which will address a wide range of trade and investment issues including market access, intellectual property, labour, and environmental issues. The Council will also help to increase commercial and investment opportunities by identifying and working to remove impediments to trade and investment flows between the United States and Ukraine.

Under the TICA, the Council will be chaired, on the Ukrainian side, by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and, on the United States' side, by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. This agreement appears to be similar to the Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) that the United States has negotiated with a number of its other trading partners.

As Ukraine is about to become a fully-fledged member of the World Trade Organization, the government is making important strides to modernize its economy and attract foreign trade and investment. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the main goal of the TICA is to initiate talks on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Ukraine. Furthermore, recent developments in international relations between Ukraine and United States are likely to have a beneficial effect on Ukraine's European integration and especially on Ukraine's strategic objective of integration into NATO. The President of the United States is a keen admirer of Ukraine's drive toward NATO membership and the United States' Senate recently approved a resolution calling on the heads of state and foreign ministers of the NATO members to approve Ukraine's application for NATO's Membership Application Plan. Among the eight authors of the resolution are all three candidates for U.S. president.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

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The original publication date for this article was 26/05/2008.