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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

A New Sieve for Foreign-Made Cars

6 October, 1998 - 00:00

The financial crisis seems to have suddenly made Ministry of Economics
officials realize the destructiveness of their attempts to achieve stability
solely through macroeconomic regulation. Inspired by this theoretical revelation,
the Ministry of Industrial Policy has rushed to revive the Ukrainian car-manufacturing
industry.

Naturally, at issue here is the attraction of foreign investment by
providing additional tax breaks. Ukrainian taxpayers, who will supposedly
drive cars manufactured on an almost competition-free basis, could probably
understand our authorities' passion for domestic cars (although they all
drive foreign brands anyway). But as an additional protective measure,
Minister of Industrial Policy Vasyl Hureyev proposed raising customs duties
for imported cars, establishing import quotas, introducing an ecological
fee for foreign cars without catalysts, banning the import of used car
bodies, and raising transport tax for juridical entities using foreign
cars.

In his commentary to The Day concerning the government's plan,
general director of the Diamatyk Center of Social and Economic Information
and analyst of Ukrainian and foreign car markets Yuriy Hrebenchuk noted
that the government's efforts to create a domestic car-making industry
are hindered primarily by people's distrust of the country's officialdom.
"When a ban on the import of cars over five years old was introduced,"
said Hrebenchuk, "Ukrainians started to bring them into the country in
parts.  Now they may be deprived even of this chance to use inexpensive
and reliable cars."

 

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