OREANDA-NEWS. July 14, 2014. The Ukraine’s Government will establish an office of the trade representative in countries with promising for Ukraine markets. Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk said this at the Third All-Ukrainian Agricultural Forum.

"Office of the Ukrainian Trade Representative is one of the key tools to promote the economic interests of Ukraine abroad," underlined Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has noted that over the past six months, the volume of Ukrainian agricultural products trade to Russia has declined by one-third: "This should have been expected. Therefore, it is clear that we need to move into new markets."

He has recalled that the EU has opened its market for Ukrainian goods, "Just do not think that you will be greeted with applause there. This is global competition, and one of the strictest in the agricultural market around the world."

The PM has also mentioned the markets of the Middle East, Africa and China.

He said the experience of establishing a trade representative office is in the United States, where is functioning USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative): "It is one of the key tools of U.S. policy."

Ukrainian farmers, the PM emphasized, should switch from raw commodities trade to finished product: "If we keep just gathering grain and selling it, that means we will always lose. And if we think differently and not just collect and sell grain, but recycle it and become a supplier of protein, then we shall be in the game. "

He has also noted that one of the key tasks the Government and the National Bank of Ukraine are facing is to ensure long and low-cost loans to farmers, "These are those loans, given in local currency and bringing foreign exchange earnings."

However, the Prime Minister stated, the state has limits as to credit resource. Now, according to him, discussions are being conducted, primarily with Western partners - the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - about resources for development that will make the banking system "breathe."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has also informed that next year the Government is to recover a compensation program of interest rates on loans for the agro-industrial complex: "This is a real effective least-corrupt and transparent mechanism".

The Prime Minister appealed to the representatives of the agricultural sector to provide the Government with their vision of agriculture development, encouraged to join to work and offer concrete solutions: "Only concrete steps. Just to write down to give 100 billion funding, the state will never give it. In the current situation, when we have barely avoided bankruptcy, when we hardly find funds in order to pay pensions and salaries – there is nowhere to finance billions of hryvnias. If we possess, we’ll give. In order to achieve this, we will have to work together. "

"You are creating jobs in Ukraine, bringing currency into the country. You are developing the economy, not the Government," emphasized Arseniy Yatsenyuk.