Brussels, 02/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Kiev gives assurance that its plan to review upwards its customs protection will respect WTO rules and that EU interests will not be affected.
“The level of customs protection of the Ukrainian market was slightly lower than of the absolute majority of our trading partners”, Peter Poroshenko, the Ukrainian minister for economic development and trade, said in an interview on a Ukrainian television channel on Tuesday 2 October. He said that Kiev wants to renegotiate at the WTO the content of an agreement which had not had the best result -despite the long negotiations - because of political rather than economic motivations for joining the WTO. Poroshenko also reaffirmed that the tariff revision would not affect the interests of Ukraine's main partners - the EU and Russia. “After all, the EU has initialled a free trade agreement with Ukraine, and an increased level of fees does not apply to countries which we have a free trade agreement with. The situation is similar with the Russian Federation”, Poroshenko said.
Ukraine surprised the world in mid-September by informally announcing to its partners at the WTO that it wanted to raise its customs duties on imports of around 350 products, in a move in line with Article 28 of the GATT which provides for conditional renegotiation of tariff concessions every three years.
The increase envisaged by Kiev would affect import volumes worth over €3.5 billion, including EU exports for nearly €2 billion. Products concerned would include cars, heavy goods vehicles and agricultural machinery, meat, flowers, fruit, vegetables and washing machines.
The trade deficit of Ukraine, which entered the WTO in 2008, increased over 50% in 2011 to reach $10.8 billion. Receiving the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, in Brussels on 24 September, Commissioner Karel De Gucht had called on Kiev to show utmost caution, warning of the risk of such a movement for the free trade agreement sealed end 2011, in the context of an association agreement initialled in March 2012 but for which signature remains suspended for political reasons.
Ukraine's proposal at the WTO for tariff revision will be discussed on 5 October in Council during a meeting of the trade policy committee. (EH/transl.fl/jl)