Pass to WTO: Two Thousand Passwords
Several days ago parliament established a moratorium on Ukraine’s joining international organizations in 2001. But even if such a decision had not been made, the reality of Ukraine to become already next year a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) looked problematic: the process of joining the WTO is too complicated and lengthy. And though it was already in 1993 that Ukraine submitted its official application to join this organization, nobody can say with confidence when it will actually become a member.
Today 139 countries are the participants in WTO and 30 others are preparing to join. As the senior expert on trade of the Ukrainian- European Consulting Center on Legislation (UEPLAC) Saul Alanoka remarked in his paper at a conference called the World Trade Organization: Basic Rules and Agreements in Kyiv, for each country this process proceeds in a different way, despite the organization scheme equal for all. It is assumed that on the average the process of joining takes four to six years, although, for example, for Bulgaria it was extended for ten years and one month (121 months), while Georgia, supported by mighty oil US and UK companies, managed in only 27 months. Moreover, the procedure of joining requires that each applicant pays certain amount — between $500,000 and one million USD per year.
According to Mr. Alanoka, joining the WTO means a political and legal commitment of the government of the joining country to accept trade rules and agreements signed by the WTO member countries. This is connected with the completion of 29 individual legal documents. Four topics are priorities during the lengthy and complicated negotiation process: trade tariffs, agriculture, services, and harmonization of legislation. Based on foreign practice, Mr. Alanoka brought up interesting information for consideration: on the average before a country joins the WTO 10-20 meetings take place, as well as 150-200 bilateral negotiations, and the answers are presented to 1500-2500 (!) questions. If we take into account that on Ukrainian joining seven meetings of the work group of the WTO member countries have taken place and the answers to 300 questions have been obtained, then our membership in this honorable organization is not viewed in any way in the nearest perspective.
One should not think that joining the WTO provides only advantages, for example, access to markets with lower customs tariffs, providing the consumers with the wider range of goods in accordance with their incomes. In Alanoka’s opinion, joining the WTO also evokes additional problems. In the first place they appear for the noncompetitive sectors used to working under conditions of protectionism.
Nevertheless, Deputy Head of the Department of Multilateral Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of the Economy Lydiya Melnyk has not lost optimism. She considers the results of the seventh meeting of the work group that took place in Geneva in July 2000 (which was preceded by the two- year break) as completely positive for our country. Ms. Melnyk calls the development of the clear schedule of harmonization of all the commercially oriented sphere of Ukrainian legislation to the norms and rules of agreements of GATT/WTO system as the most important issue during the ongoing negotiations. In particular, this concerns the tax regime, regime of customs tariff and non-tariff regulation of imports, privatization, and regulation of legal relations in agriculture, reforming the state system of certification and standard setting, along with policies in the sphere of protection of intellectual property and copyright. An intersectoral commission on the issue of Ukraine joining the WTO prepared a review of the legislative acts and draft laws as to their correspondence to the GATT/WTO requirements, however, Ms. Melnyk recognizes that some bills go around the Ministry of the Economy, as not only the Ministries can exercise legislative initiative. In mid-December the parties have to determine the date of the eighth meeting and at the same time, as Melnyk hopes, the interim term for the accession of Ukraine to the WTO can be spelled out.
