The Ukrainian Ministry of Economy has announced that the European Commission (EC) is to discuss the matter of the abolishment of the EU steel quota for Ukraine at the next meeting of the EU Council of Ministers.
Since the meetings of the Council are held on a weekly basis, the cancellation of the EU steel quota for Ukraine is expected in a matter of weeks, or even days.
The EU had agreed to remove its quota for Ukrainian steel products following Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which took place on May 16, 2008.
The quota regime was imposed on Ukrainian steel exports to the EU in 1995 and was extended each subsequent year. In the first four months of the current year, Ukraine exported a total of 464,832 tons of steel products to the EU, filling 34.4 percent of its revised quota of 1,353,000 tons for 2008.