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Home > Training & Seminars
Seminar on "The Ukraine's accession to the WTO: big changes and big gains?".
Kiev, 3rd April 2008
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Programme |
The ICE International training division organises a Seminar in Ukraine, addressed to managers and civil servants involved the recent accession to the WTO. The training initiative will last one day and will have the following programme:
- WTO accession
- Ukraine has signed on February 2008 accession documents to the WTO. All that remains is for Ukraine's parliament to ratify the deal within six months; 30 days after it does this, Ukraine will join the WTO
- A key step in Kiev's effort to move it further towards the European Union and the west.
- Ukraine, with a population of 47m, was the third biggest country still outside the WTO after Russia and Iran.
- Macroeconomic impacts
- Pascal Lamy, the WTO director-general, said membership would provide Kiev "with a stable and predictable trade environment that will boost its growth and prosperity".
- The Ukraine's Government says that the WTO accession will boost GDP growth by 1.5-1.7 percentage points and boost investment by US$3.5bn annually.
- Other evaluations are more cautious
- Exports and buoyant domestic consumption have fuelled eight years of strong economic growth, including a 7 per cent increase in GDP last year. But the lifting of protectionist barriers will force painful adjustments in some key sectors, including sugar and the fast-expanding car industry, as more competitive imports flood in.
- WTO membership is also predicted to boost foreign direct investment, which reached nearly Dollars 8bn (Euros 5.4bn, Pounds 4bn) last year.
- The experience of other countries suggests that WTO accession alone will not lead to a big boost in economic growth or income, although it will mean big changes in trade patterns.
- Trade Adjustments: Winners and losers
- The WTO membership agreement requires Kiev to cut maximum tariffs on industrial goods to an average 5 per cent and on agricultural goods to an average 10-11 per cent. Duties on a wide range of goods - including steel, pharmaceuticals, wood and information technology products - will be eliminated.
- Kiev has also agreed not to subsidise agricultural ex-ports and to restrict aid to farmers.
- The WTO accession will immediately benefit the country's steel and chemicals firms, which currently struggle to fight anti-dumping actions.
- Other sectors, such as agriculture and automotives, will lose.
- Free trade deal with the EU
- Greater benefits will flow from a free-trade deal with the EU, which can only be negotiated after WTO accession.
- Negotiations are expected to kick off later this month.
- Big interest of third-country investors if Ukraine will sign a FTA with the EU
- An FTA with the EU could take many forms, from one with trade in goods only, to something deeper and more complex, along the lines of the European Economic Area (EEA).
- Trade Negotiation with Russia
- From within the club WTO, Ukraine will be in a stronger position to demand trading concessions from Russia, which like Ukraine has been negotiating to join the WTO for the best part of 15 years.
- Mr Yushchenko has said that up to 50% of Ukraine's trade deficit with Russia is a consequence of restrictions imposed by the Russians on Ukrainian goods, in particular on Ukrainian metals and dairy products
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Objectives |
The aim of the training initiative is to show to the Ukrainian's Small and Medium Enterprises the changes and the benefits after the accession to the WTO and to develop and enlarge the trade relationship between the two countries.
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For further information:
form.internazionale@ice.it - n.salem@ice.it
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