| Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada, with a scandal, nevertheless adopted one key law necessary for the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is a law on the protection of intellectual property. As Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Oleg Rybachuk said, “if we had failed this law, the road to the WTO for Ukraine would have been closed.” Ukraine leads the list of countries producing pirated laser discs.
The Rada also considered draft laws on the abolition of restrictions on the export of scrap ferrous metals from the country in the form of customer-supplied raw materials and a law on the import into the customs territory of Ukraine of used cars that are more than eight years old (currently the countdown starts at five years).
Meetings on this matter will continue. The approval of a package of 14 laws guaranteeing Ukraine membership in the WTO already in 2005 became a continuous scandal. The opposition again blocked the work of parliament, demanding the resignation of ministers who did not surrender their parliamentary mandate. But this was just an excuse. In fact, the opposition protested against a number of conditions for Ukraine’s accession to the WTO, affecting the interests of Ukrainian business. About a hundred oppositionists seized the presidium. One of the communists repeated the situation the day before yesterday, snatching the microphone (worth more than $300) from Speaker Vladimir Litvin and happily breaking it.
Lytvyn, who called on his colleagues “not to use profanity,” could not cope with the enraged deputies. The opposition turned on megaphones and sirens, which drowned out the speeches with their howl. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko watched with a straight face from the government box. President Viktor Yushchenko, who cannot stand difficult scenes, generally went to his native Sumy region to admire the colorful holiday of Ivan Kupala.
The meeting still took place. The government insisted that WTO membership is the only opportunity for Ukraine's civilized access to world markets. Ukraine has been negotiating membership in the organization for 12 years.
As Ukrainian Minister of Economy Sergei Terekhin assures, Ukraine will join the WTO on fairly mild terms. It was possible to achieve a ten-year transition period for agriculture. Acceptable conditions are provided for the metallurgy and textile industries. But non-competitive sectors of the economy (agriculture, metallurgy, automotive, mechanical engineering and coal mining) will suffer, and opponents of joining the WTO say that this will be a shock to the Ukrainian economy. “The current government is following the instructions of the United States,” said the head of the Communist Party, Pyotr Simonenko. Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv
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