Going After World Trade the Classic Way

The WTO working group gathered for its ninth meeting in Geneva to process Ukraine’s membership application. This time it analyzed the status of bilateral relations between Ukraine and member countries and bringing the nation’s legislation into conformity with WTO requirements and standards. According to Andriy Honcharuk, first deputy state secretary of the Ministry of the Economy and European Integration, a separate meeting was dedicated to Ukrainian agricultural policy and the cabinet’s stand in maintaining state support of the agrarian realm at $1.4 billion was approved by the EU, although there were certain “disputable subjects” in the talks with Australia. The latter wants access to the Ukrainian sugar market. All told, Mr. Honcharuk said the ninth round of talks appeared quite optimistic: “We achieved what we had planned.” It was agreed to spend the next several months working hard to draw up the so-called checklist – i.e., a list of issues to be settled in the working group format. The list is to be completed by October 15, 2002.

Mr. Honcharuk believes that such a tight schedule was approved owing to strong political support of the talks even before they started in Geneva by the official Ukrainian delegation led by Vice Premier Vasyl Rohovy. Political consultations with the WTO leadership and a number of ambassadors from member countries showed that Ukraine is in the final phase of the admission process. “Our partners at the talks stated that Ukraine has practically approached the stage of drafting the working group’s admission protocol,” Mr. Rohovy noted. At a meeting with the head of the Ukrainian delegation, WTO Director General Michael Moore said he attached special importance to Ukraine’s admission as one of the largest candidate members, together with Russia and Saudi

He also stressed that Ukraine’s noticeable progress during the past year was possible owing to the leadership’s political will and changes in the approaches to the membership talks. Mr. Moore pointed out that top-level Ukrainian delegation’s visit to Geneva was the best proof for the member countries that the Ukrainian government considers WTO membership the highest priority.

Meeting with Dorothy Dwoskin, deputy head of the US trade representation, Mr. Rohovy announced recent changes in the protection of intellectual property: a presidential order and eleven cabinet resolutions aimed at implementing the law governing the production, export, and import of CDs, along with a bill submitted to parliament bringing Ukrainian laws on intellectual property into conformity with international standards. Among the issues of Ukrainian-US trade relations stemming from WTO membership, chicken imports to Ukraine proved a stumbling block. The Ukrainian side wants to settle all matters in dispute amicably, but in keeping with current Ukrainian legislation. This, according to Mr. Rohovy, offers an opportunity to meet each other halfway.

After signing bilateral protocols on access to commodity and services markets with Georgia and Latvia recently, there are eight countries with which all problems have been solved. Although two-thirds of the road is still to be traveled by signing further bilateral protocols, it does not mean that the process will take much time, Mr. Honcharuk told The Day. Mr. Rohovy said talks with the European Union and Hungary are practically completed, meaning that the protocols may be signed shortly. Talks with Brazil, Australia, Ecuador, and other countries are nearing completion.

The Ukrainian delegation included a representative of the parliament. “We informed everybody that, after the new parliament was elected and despite different political views, there is a constructive majority, which is prepared jointly with the government to harmonize Ukrainian legislation with WTO requirements,” said Dmytro Tabachnyk, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Foreign Affairs Committee.

Verkhovna Rada has passed 15 of 20 top priority bills. Commenting on Ukraine’s progress on the road to WTO, Mr. Rohovy noted that Ukraine is getting there the “classical way” and does not need any special treatment. The only request the Ukrainian delegation addressed to the WTO leadership was to see to it that there be no double standard or discriminatory approach when admitting one country or another.