Experts deny advantages of Ukraine’s accession to the Custom Union
Membership of Ukraine in the Custom Union (CU) with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will not improve the life quality of Ukrainians even in a short-term period. Experts drew these conclusions during the round-table discussion “How will Ukraine European cooperate with the Custom Union countries? ”, which took place in Kyiv on April, 21st. the event was organized by the Civic Expert Council within the Ukrainian Part of the EU-Ukraine cooperation Committee and NGO “Centre-UA” and supported by the European Programme of the International Renaissance Foundation.
According to participants, in order to provide the economic growth for the sake of Ukrainian people, the government of Ukraine should enhance the economic integration and limit its effort on territorial-targeted measures, which proved to be inefficient in a long-run period, as the international experience demonstrates.
Dmytro Liapin, Chairman of the Property and Freedom Institute mentioned: “One possible scenario for the development of relationships between Ukraine and the CU countries is to implement the competitive advantages of Ukraine in order to sustain economic cooperation between more developed countries and the CU. For today Ukraine has such advantages, moreover, with the FTA+ between Ukraine and the EU Ukraine’s competitive capacity at the world level will be stronger than with the CU”.
According to the experts’ opinions, there are enough arguments to consider the international agreements of Ukraine’s participation in the CU not to be in compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine. “Only the Constitutional Court of Ukraine can define the constitutionality of the decision about Ukraine’s participation in the CU. However, the Court does not provide the answers to some abstract questions, no matter how interesting or important they are. Thus, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine cannot define the constitutionality of the decision about Ukraine’s participation in the CU unless the appropriate international agreements are signed. In case the agreements are non-constitutional, it will be necessary to change the Constitution of Ukraine,” – Robert Khorolskyy, legal expert of Ukrainian-European Policy and Legal Advice Centre (UEPLAC), has underlined.
The experts also paid attention to a number of problems, which might arise in case Ukraine joins the CU, being a WTO member. “The reconsideration of Ukraine’s obligations to WTO countries is theoretically possible, though is very difficult and expensive. If Ukraine accepts current import duties of the CU, these changes are to be approved by all WTO member countries (they are more than 150) and the compensations are to be paid, because the CU’s import duties are higher than those in Ukraine”, – Veronika Movchan, Research director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, is reporting.
Experts warn the long-term risks of Ukraine’s participation in the CU essentially exceed all possible short-term advantages, communicated by the representatives of Russia.
Video can be found here.
Contact information: Civic Expert Council, Victoria Gumeniuk, +38 067 448 02 67, vita.gumeniuk@gmail.com
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The Goal of the European Programme is to promote Ukraine’s European integration by providing financial and expert support to relevant civil society initiatives.
