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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Full Steam Ahead Toward Neofeudalism

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

Regional splits have always been recognized as a prevalent characteristic of any agile feudal system. And this includes economic breakup. Landlords used to accept payments from the working masses, including transit and carriage duties along with import/export taxes. They would instruct artisans what to make and how, what prices to sell at, and how much to offer for sale. This, of course, included barter.

In Ukraine today, it appears, such medieval economic methods are quite in vogue. Reports from Interfax Ukraine and the Economy Ministry Press Service show that "Ukraine retains a stable trend toward increasing monopoly at the regional and ministerial levels, to the detriment of the domestic producer." The scope is very large here, ranging from banning imports from certain regions, to selling products supplied from other regions, to forcing local businesses to supply products according to priority quotas, to curbing certain lines of business to setting prices contrary to law.

Add here office security, shipment escort charges (including bribes for customs officials, and so on and so forth. We recall from novels about the Middle Ages that extortion was the privilege of itinerant landless knights. No, we cannot say that medieval feudalism reigns supreme in Ukraine. What we have is its twentieth century modernized version. Now we have to reckon not only with regional bribe-takers. We also have central agencies to deal with. Something unthinkable under medieval feudalism, for our ancestors did not have the kind of communications we have now. Now all it takes is pressing keys to send or receive the right kind of message, fax, modem, Internet – you name it.

INCIDENTALLY:

After declaring that such regional/ministerial monopolism may result in Ukraine losing its status as a transit country, the Economy Ministry's Press Service went on to say that this would also damage the domestic producer. Liubov Kuzmenko, Head of the First Study and Investigation Directorate, told The Day that the issue was first raised by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, at a conference attended by officials from other influential government agencies, including Economy Ministry people. The expected result was a draft Cabinet resolution geared to ease this collection burden. No one knows why this resolution has not been approved to date. Ms. Kuzmenko says she and a group of Committee workers visited the Chop Autoport and talked to people carrying shipments across the Ukrainian frontier. All complained that the customs duties were exorbitant, and that shipment were kept waiting by customs for too long. Meanwhile a similar "autoport" was opened in Poland and its services are rendered quickly and at lower costs, compared to its Ukrainian counterpart, witness accounts say.

"We will lose carriers if we don't change our policy," Mr. Kuzmenko concludes.

 

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