On Friday, the Ukraine will sign a sweeping economic and trade agreement with the European Union.
President Petro Poroshenko is due to sign the document on Friday in Brussels.
Photo courtesy of INFphoto.com
"The question is the modernization of the whole economy," said economist Volodymyr Sidenko at the Razumkov Center research institute in Kiev, according to the Associated Press. "Without institutional change, all the trade and investment will not be very efficient."
The basics of the agreement include an elimination of 98 percent of EU tariffs and 99 percent of Ukranian ones. Experts are hoping that eliminated tariffs will create the possibility for the trade of more goods and services.
Russian government officials have said that they are responding with trade barriers.
According to The Moscow Times, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was quoted by Interfax as telling reporters in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi earlier this week, "We have a possibility of imposing customs-tariff measures at the level of the Russian government."
Former President Viktor Yanukovych planned to sign a deal but reneged under pressure from Mosow. He was sent into exile.
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