Ukraine-WTO: POST-ACCESSION SCENARIO

摘要

Lately, the issue of Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization appeared among the most debated ones. Hot disputes of politicians, ministers, people's deputies and entrepreneurs are devoted to benefits acquired by Ukraine from the accession to the WTO. Undoubtedly, Ukraine's accession to the WTO will be the sign of Ukraine's integration into the global economic system. Presently, WTO by-laws regulate over 92 percent of global trade; WTO members comprise 144 states all over the world. Yury Petrovsky, Head of the Directorate for Foreign Economic Relations of the Ministry of Industrial Policy, believes that Ukraine has no other alternative than access the WTO. Sure, it is impossible to avoid losses in numerous economic sectors. However, on the whole, Ukraine will get a lot of economic advantages, he asserts. Ukraine's presence on the global markets of commodities and services will strengthen. Besides, an approach to antidumping inquiries in regard to the output of Ukrainian origin will change. Ukraine will get an opportunity to protect its economic interests on a wider basis. According to Valery Khoroshkovsky, the Minister of Economy and European Integration, the very Ukraine's accession to the WTO will not settle the problem of applying antidumping measures to the Ukrainian output. However, being the WTO member, Ukraine may succeed in effective protecting its rights. Thus, in case of necessity, Ukraine will be able to use the opportunities of settling trade disputes by mechanisms foreseen by the WTO. Besides, Ukraine will get the most favored nation treatment within the trade space of countries holding membership in the WTO. What is more, the markets of these countries will be more open for Ukrainian exporters. Presently, a lot of countries connect the outlooks for bilateral economic cooperation with Ukraine with the very fact of coming Ukraine's accession to WTO. No doubts, the accession will intensify investment cooperation of Ukraine, speed up implementation of European legal standards in Ukraine and will bring up living standard of the Ukrainian population in the near future. However, the chorus of optimists cannot fight the voice of skeptics. According to the latter, after Ukraine's accession to the WTO, the "golden rain will touch only export-oriented economic sectors; residual will face notable losses due to opening of markets. Such fears are based on insufficient competitiveness of Ukrainian-made output.