By Natalia Vikulina, The Day
Richard Morningstar, US Presidential Advisor for the CIS, and NSC representative Carlos Pascuale will share their views on Ukraine’s investment climate with Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and she will decide whether to support Ukraine and its leadership in her statement to Congress April 30, to decide whether to give Ukraine US aid in full.
The US Act of Appropriations for 1998 reads that at least $225 million is to be channeled in Ukraine, provided 50% (less the funds allocated for nuclear plant safety and election support) is suspended until the Secretary of States corroborates that the Ukrainian government has attained substantial progress in accommodating US investors’ grievances forwarded to the US Embassy before April 30, 1997. In other words, Kyiv stands to lose about $90 million.
There are twelve such complaints and Mrs. Albright is not as yet decided on her stand in Congress come April 30. Recommendations submitted by Morningstar and Pascuale will serve as the finishing touches to a picture she has already put together and called “How Ukraine has Changed Its Investment Climate.”
Mr. Morningstar said at a summary press conference that the US investors who filed the 12 fateful complaints were dissatisfied by primarily four things: (a) it was impossible to carry out contracts with any degree of accuracy, (b) civil judgments were hard to enforce, (c) too many unreasonable regulations, and (d) a bad tax system.
The Americans’ patience has run out. They cannot wait interminably for Ukraine to change its laws. Even now (Reuters reports) a number of US companies have decided to reduce by 50% their supplies of mineral fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, and seeds.






