The Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Ukraine was signed in Kyiv on 11 July 2016, in duplicate, the English, French and Ukrainian texts being equally authentic. Canada Treaty Series 2017/31. It enters into force on the first day of the second month following receipt of the latter notification of completion of domestic procedures: 1 August 2017. It is not the modernized agreement signed in Ottawa in 2023, which terminated this text on 1 July 2024.

Article 1.1: the Parties establish a free trade area, consistent with Article XXIV of the GATT 1994. Article 1.2: they affirm their rights and obligations under the WTO Agreement; in the event of inconsistency, this Agreement prevails except as otherwise provided; subsidies and anti-dumping and countervailing measures remain governed exclusively by the WTO. Article 1.4: each Party is fully responsible for observance and shall take reasonable measures to ensure observance by sub-national governments and authorities.

Chapter 2: national treatment and market access for goods, with tariff staging in annexes — product lists and origin rules are not transcribed. Chapters 3–6: rules of origin, customs procedures, trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, at framework level. Chapters 7–15: technical barriers, emergency action, government procurement, intellectual property, competition, monopolies, trade and labour, trade and environment, electronic commerce — without a tariff or origin-evasion handbook.

Chapter 16: Joint Commission and Coordinators. Chapter 17: dispute settlement, at framework level. Chapter 18: general exceptions, national security, taxation, cultural industries. Article 19.2: a review within two years of entry into force, including towards services, investment and telecommunications, which were not fully covered. Article 19.4: no unilateral reservations. Article 19.6: termination on six months’ notice. Article 19.7: accession of a non-Party through an Agreement on Accession.

Cover: the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv, the city of signature; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Canada–Ukraine Free Trade Agreement; Canada–Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, Chapter 19 (Global Affairs Canada).