EU Agreement Will Boost Ukraine Trade

KIEV -- Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk will travel to Brussels on June 14 to sign a wide-ranging trade and cooperation treaty with the European Union, a presidential spokesman said Thursday."Ukraine devotes great attention and significance to this signing because we are part of Europe," said presidential spokesman Viktor Stelmakh, confirming Kravchuk's one-day trip next Tuesday.It took months of negotiations to fix the terms of the agreement, under which the EU will grant Ukraine "most favored nation" status, removing quotas on Ukrainian imports. Ukraine will make it easier for EU companies to import and invest in the former Soviet republic."We always declared our intentions for closer integration in the world community," Stelmakh said. "The signing of this agreement is a great, significant step in this direction."The deal will also offer Ukraine regular political consultations with EU nations. EU diplomats have expressed hope that the agreement will boost pro-Western feeling in Ukraine ahead of presidential elections June 26.The EU is hoping to invite President Boris Yeltsin to sign a similar agreement at a June 24-25 summit of Union leaders on Corfu, but it is not certain he will attend.The 12 EU member nations agreed last month to invite Kravchuk after some dropped demands the signing be linked to Ukraine's adhesion to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which would require it to give up nuclear weapons it inherited from the Soviet Union.The EU's deals with Russia and Ukraine will be similar to accords the union has concluded with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. But unlike those, the "partnership agreements" with the two former Soviet republics will not offer eventual membership.