Ukraine draws nearer to European Union (05/28/00)

Ukraine draws nearer to European Union

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Successful meetings between Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko and European leaders on May 22-23 may lead to closer and more liberalized trade relations that the Ukrainian side hopes will give it associate membership in the European Union by the end of the year.

After returning from a meeting of the Council on Ukraine-European Union Cooperation, Mr. Yuschenko and the Ukrainian delegation were optimistic that the talks had changed the way Ukraine and Western Europe cooperate. While the prime minister said he is certain that now "the dialogue with the EU will broaden" and that they had laid the groundwork for "serious cooperation," his press spokesperson, Natalia Zarudna said the talks "managed to change the way the EU looks at Ukraine."

Ukrainian officials tempered their satisfaction with the results of the discussions by stating that no firm decisions on liberalized trade quotas or associate membership for Ukraine had been agreed upon. But they underscored that a process had been put into place that leads in that direction.

"You can't expect that a country that had a partnership agreement with Europe will immediately be given associate or full membership," explained Anatolii Lytvytskyi, presidential advisor to the Cabinet of Ministers, who was part of the Ukrainian delegation. "You can't expect that all the trade problems between us would be resolved in one moment. The process will continue," he noted.

Mr. Lytvytskyi said that, nonetheless, Ukraine hopes to receive both free trade status, which would come with its designation as a free market economy, and associate EU membership before the end of the year. He said the two sides agreed in principle on the need for the expansion of trade quotas and on what Ukraine needs to do to receive free market status. Mr. Lytvytskyi explained that a final plan should be ready for signing in the fall during the annual Ukraine-EU summit.

Prime Minister Yuschenko came to the Brussels bargaining table with the primary goal of opening up a dialogue on giving Ukraine free trade status within the organization, which would allow it to maneuver around European anti-dumping laws and quotas that have limited Ukraine's ability to export certain commodities in large numbers, among them textile products and scrap metal. He also wanted to continue and expand talks on Ukraine achieving associate membership in the union, a prelude to eventual permanent membership.

The Ukrainian government was eager to show that economic reforms were moving forward full throttle, and that it was making necessary changes to meet European trade standards.

Along with that, Ukraine needed to convince the Europeans that it had made headway in resolving 19 points of friction in trade relations, including resolution of an embargo on European used cars more than five years old that Ukraine had undertaken under pressure from the Korean car-maker Daewoo. Daewoo had insisted on a law banning entry into Ukraine of such vehicles in return for opening a manufacturing facility in the country.

In recent weeks Ukraine had lifted the embargo and began talks with Daewoo on the restructuring of other portions of the contract that give Daewoo financial and trade perks, which the EU has said it considers barriers to free trade.

Romano Prodi, the president of the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, said after his meeting with Mr. Yuschenko that he looks positively upon the reform process currently going on in Ukraine. "We trust the politics of reform that the Ukrainian government is undertaking," said Mr. Prodi.

He added that the EU is ready to substantially increase its support for the expansion of ties between Ukraine and the EU, according to Interfax-Ukraine. He explained that he had spoken with Mr. Yuschenko about expanding bilateral trade relations into other fields, especially in telecommunications, while underscoring that Ukraine today has a much better business environment for European investors.

Prime Minister Yuschenko also met with NATO Secretary General George Robertson during his stay in Brussels, which some today call the "capital of Europe" because of the several pan-European institutions housed there. According to Ms. Zarudna, Mr. Robertson voiced support for the progress made in economic reforms since his last visit to Kyiv in February. The two discussed a variety of aspects of military-technical and military-economic cooperation, including a NATO proposal on military reform in Ukraine that includes assistance in developing effective monitoring techniques for budgetary cash transactions.

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