The Government will facilitate the establishment of joint railway border crossing points between Ukraine and EU neighbouring countries to speed up the logistics of domestic exporters.

This was announced by First Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko during a meeting with representatives of the metallurgical industry with the participation of the management of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia on 18 October 2022. The same day Yuliia Svyrydenko met with representatives of the agricultural sector.

“The Government keeps working with the EU neighbouring countries to establish joint railway border crossing points. Simultaneous implementation of customs formalities by both sides should speed up the logistics of Ukrainian exports to the EU.

We are also negotiating with the Polish side to increase the staff of phytosanitary control officers at the border. And although this applies only to agricultural products, more efficient processing of such goods should speed up the entire cross-border railway logistics of Ukrainian goods,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The meeting also raised the issues of tariff reform and prioritization of logistics between different types of cargo. These questions were answered by the Chairman of the Board of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia Oleksandr Kamyshin:

“I would like to emphasize that at present agricultural products and metallurgical products almost do not compete with each other. As for the increase of logistics capabilities, by the end of November we are going to open two additional railway crossings with Romania. Thus, the possibility of deliveries to the port of Constanta will increase.”

Oleksandr Kamyshin also responded to the metallurgists' proposal to hold talks with the Polish side concerning the construction of a wide gauge in Poland:

“The EU will not even consider such a proposal from the security point of view. Especially at such a time as now, because the wide gauge is the standard of the Russian Federation. Besides, from the economic point of view, the construction of such a track would take 6-7 years, so this project is not relevant now.”

The parties discussed changes in the tariff policy of Ukrzaliznytsia and agreed to continue the dialogue in this direction.

The same day the Minister of Economy of Ukraine and the management of Ukrzaliznytsia met with representatives of the agricultural sector.

At the meeting, the agricultural producers raised, in particular, the issue of the possibility of developing by Ukrzaliznytsia a mechanism of quota access of export products to UZ’s services. According to agricultural producers, this could strengthen the export opportunities of the industry.

Representatives of the industry also supported the reforms to unify the cost by tariff classes initiated by Ukrzaliznytsia. They also emphasized the extremely positive practice of holding auctions for the use of grain wagons to reduce the speculative component.