Discussions around the government's work on Ukraine's accession to the WTO have been ongoing for a long time. Meanwhile, only a small number of people can answer the question of what this organization is, what its rules are, and what awaits Ukraine after joining it.

Hence the spread of a number of myths about the WTO that do not correspond to reality but are widely mentioned at all levels. One of the most recent such mentions was the material "Disruption of WTO Accession – A Short Path to the SES," recently published on UP.

The author of this material (certainly with sincere intentions) refers to some of these most common opinions.

The first of them is related to the date of Ukraine's possible accession to the WTO – accession to the WTO by the end of the current year was one of the main promises of the new government.

However, back in the spring, the impossibility of resolving this task on time became obvious. The reason is that for WTO accession it is necessary to complete negotiations with all countries without exception that are part of the working group on consideration of Ukraine's application for membership in the organization.

If negotiations with at least one country are not completed, it is impossible to obtain WTO membership. And Ukraine has not yet signed the relevant protocols with 10 countries, including such problematic ones as Australia and the USA. That it was unrealistic to manage this before the end of the year was clear back at its beginning.

Therefore, simultaneously with the repetition of the slogan that Ukraine would certainly join the WTO by the end of the year, it was decided to spread two more myths.

Myth No. 2 concerns the mandatory adoption of the full package of WTO laws to ensure Ukraine's accession to the organization. The purpose of the myth is to declare parliament (and not the government) the culprit of the failure of a strategic foreign policy task.

In fact, according to WTO procedure, the necessary legislation (unlike the completion of bilateral negotiations) can be adopted and implemented within a certain period after accession. However, it seems that representatives of opposition factions simply do not know about this, otherwise completely different arguments would be heard in parliament...

By the way, one of the still unadopted bills in this package concerns the gradual reduction of the export duty on sunflower seeds.

It is interesting that the WTO generally does not regulate the procedure for establishing export (as opposed to import) duties. That is, obligations regarding changes in export rates are not provided for by WTO rules. Therefore, our negotiating partners should not have put forward such a demand to us at all.

The third myth was voiced with equal confidence by both former Economy Minister Serhiy Teriokhin and current Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. It is formulated as follows: "If Ukraine does not manage to join the WTO this year, it will do so in the summer of 2006."

How – is unclear. After all, the authority to admit new members is vested in the WTO Ministerial Conference, which meets once every two years.

The nearest one (by which Ukraine does not manage to resolve the procedural issues regarding accession) will take place in Hong Kong in three weeks, and the next one after it – accordingly, at the end of 2007 or the beginning of 2008. It is at this next Conference that Ukraine has the greatest chances of joining the WTO.

Not only the Ministerial Conference can admit new members. The WTO General Council also legally has the corresponding authority, and it meets several times a year. But it makes decisions on admitting only small countries regarding which the members of the Organization have no fundamental questions or disputes.

Yes, according to a decision of the General Council, Armenia once joined the WTO. However, Ukraine should not hope for accession through a General Council decision, because it and Russia have been designated as two (out of about 30) main, priority candidates for membership, for which the accession procedure will be fully observed.

Over the past two years, the WTO Council has not admitted a single new member. In addition, it can be predicted that, in order to avoid conflict, decisions on inviting Ukraine and Russia to the WTO will be adopted simultaneously.

The foregoing concerns those procedural aspects to which the greatest attention is being paid today. As for what Ukraine will receive after joining the WTO, there is a widespread opinion about the practically automatic abolition of anti-dumping measures, quotas on exported products, and so on with respect to it.

I will express a different view: WTO member countries actively apply anti-dumping instruments, subsidies, quotas, countervailing duties, etc. Membership in the organization does not mean the need for a complete abolition of import duties on products, but only their limitation to a certain maximum level.

In other words, for Ukrainian society today it is relevant to conduct broad explanatory work regarding WTO rules and those instruments for protecting the interests of national producers that are available to its members.

Moreover, a thorough and well-argued sector-by-sector analysis of the consequences of Ukraine's accession to the WTO does not exist even now. Paying attention to precisely these issues will be more useful than speculation about how to join the WTO before Russia.

Yevhen Nikolaev, Center for Structural Forecasting

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Disruption of WTO Accession - A Short Path to the SES