The World Trade Organization announced on its Web site on Jan. 25 that Ukraine, after 14 years of negotiations, has finally put together an agreement that could allow it to become a member of the WTO in August.
The General Council of the WTO will consider the agreement at its Feb. 5 meeting. If Ukraine ratifies the deal by July 4, it will become a member 30 days later.
According to the Kyiv Post and the Moscow Times, the Feb. 5 vote is mostly a formality. By agreeing to vote in the first place, the WTO has already signaled its acceptance of Ukraine.
According to a recent Reuters article, the WTO also announced on the 25th that it hoped to speed up negotiations with Russia, which has been trying to join the 151-member trade organization for more than a decade as well.
In a 2005 article from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, reporter Jan Maksymiuk explained that Ukraine and Russia have been in a race to join the WTO for years. Whichever country was accepted first would be able to require the other, still just a prospective new member, to make changes to its trade rules and economic practices before it could join.
According to the Reuters article, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Ukraine would not try to prevent Russia from joining.
But, as noted by an expat named Nicholas on the Kiev Ukraine News Blog, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told European Union officials in Brussels this week that Ukraine was seeking to cut Russian middlemen out of its natural gas supply contracts.
Ukraine and Russia have clashed in recent years over the price Russia charges for natural gas. In 2006, Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine the first few, cold days of January until the two countries struck a new five-year agreement.
Tags: Russia, Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, World Trade Organization, WTO, Yulia Tymoshenko
February 4, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Wow. You do a great job of integrating information from a host of different sources and placing everything in its appropriate context. I’ll be honest; it’s a bit overwhelming, but I suspect that’s because I know nothing about eastern European politics and economics. I definitely feel better informed after having read your blog.
I could never ask you to dumb down this blog because it is so smart. But I guess I might suggest a more relaxed, friendly tone to draw in us ignorant readers. I particularly like your line in the post after this one about the energy company’s name coming straight out of the USSR. A little more of that humor would be welcome.
February 4, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Thanks so much for the great feedback! Yeah, I’m trying to settle into a more comfortable tone. This is so newsy that I’ve been afraid to show how delightful I find some of the little details of these countries are for fear of making light of something serious. Thanks for mentioning that particular line about the USSR. I liked it but wasn’t sure about it. Now I’ll try to go more in that direction.