On August 27, Yu Jianhua, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative, and Taras Andriyovych Kachka, Deputy Minister for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture and Trade Envoy of Ukraine, jointly held the sixth meeting of China-Ukraine Economic and Trade Sub-committee by video conference. The vice ministers had in-depth discussions on coordinating COVID-19 response and advancing China-Ukraine economic and trade cooperation as part of the preparation on the economic and trade front for the fourth meeting of the China-Ukraine Commission for Intergovernmental Cooperation.

Yu Jianhua said that China is willing to explore and implement new measures to deepen bilateral economic and trade cooperation with Ukraine, as agreed by Chinese and Ukrainian leaders, including:

·Advancing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and accelerating the formulation of the Plan for Cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative between China and Ukraine;

·Further increasing bilateral trade, and initiating whole-supply-chain cooperation on soybean;

·Expanding investment as well as economic and technological cooperation, and implementing major projects in energy, infrastructure, and agriculture;

·Strengthening dialogue and cooperation on trade remedy, and reducing trade frictions;

·improving trade facilitation, and establishing a bilateral consultation mechanism for trade liberalization.

These measures will lead to the high-quality development of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, Yu said.

Kachka thanked China for its timely assistance with Ukraine’s pandemic prevention and control. He said that Ukraine is willing to enhance cooperation with China in areas such as:

·Overcoming the difficulties caused by COVID-19, and bolstering coordinated epidemic response and sharing of experience;

·Pushing for sustained and steady bilateral trade growth, and increasing the export of Ukrainian agricultural products to China;

·Encouraging Chinese enterprises to invest and participate in cooperation projects like infrastructure, water resource utilization, and new energy development in Ukraine;

·Enhancing bilateral coordination under the World Trade Organization’s framework, and exploring negotiations of bilateral trade liberalization arrangements.

The goal is to pursue sound and stable development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Kachka added.