EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will provide consumers with quality products
The signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will lead to fierce competition among producers, thus ensuring access to better quality and cheaper goods for consumers, said the participants of a roundtable held in Chernivtsi on October 25. The event was organized by the Bukovyna Agency for Regional Development and the Chernivtsi Chamber of Commerce and Industry within the project “DCFTA with the EU: expectations of the regions on the eve of the Association agreement signing” implemented by the Podil Foundation for International and Regional Studies in collaboration with the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, second working group of the Ukrainian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and the Association of Regional Think Tanks with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation’s European Program.
During the discussion, Volodymyr Kozmenko, head of the Chernivtsi branch of the Ukrainian Association of European Studies, stressed that it’s important to explain to people what exactly the European Union is. The free trade area that Ukraine wants to join is only one stage of integration – next there should be a customs union, common market, and economic union. Secondly, according to the expert, changes shouldn’t be expected to happen in one day. There is still a long process of ratification and implementation ahead. Thirdly, the agreement alone doesn’t mean change. He stressed that Ukrainians have grown accustomed to fast results and fast money while for Europeans it’s normal to wait several years for return on investment.
Maryna Kyrylyuk, a deputy of the Chernivtsi Oblast Council, drew the participants’ attentions to the changing macroeconomic parameters that will result in the reorganization of local businesses, in particular, access to business loans (for comparison, the annual interest rate on loans in Ukraine is 10-20%, while in Europe it is less than 5%).
Volodymyr Suvorov, expert of the State Enterprise All-Ukrainian State Research and Production Center for Standardization, Metrology, Certification and Consumers’ Rights Protection (“Ukrmetrteststandard”), stressed that producers in the Bukovyna region must be prepared to become fully responsible for their products because liability will be transferred from intermediaries and supervisory bodies to the producer. After the signing of the association agreement, he believes the field of standardization and producers will face a difficult period, but in the end the market and consumers will have better quality products.
Most of the discussants agreed that after the signing of the association agreement with the EU local producers will have to accept European rules to survive the fierce competition. However, such competition will give consumers access to cheaper and better quality goods.
Contacts:
Bukovyna Agency for Regional Development
Mykola Liakhovych
(+380 372) 55 26 04
mykola.liakhovych@bard.cv.ua
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The essential role of the European Program lies in promotion of Ukraine’s European integration, combining external pressure of the EU with the domestic one of the Ukrainian civil society, and thus contributing to promotion of open society values in Ukraine.
