What did the US-Ukraine WTO protocol cost Ukraine?

National Bank of Ukraine is ready to give green light for foreigners. It means Ukraine yielded to US strict clause which demanded 5-year period of transition for foreign banks to come in Ukraine. Ukraine tried to stand for 10 years of transition. It was the main condition of US signature under the protocol.

However, the changes into the Law on Banks and Bank Activity were wrecked many times by the parliament due to the bank lobby resistance. Lots of bankers stressed if the changes were passed the foreigners would occupy the lion’s share of domestic bank system. As a result of it, Ukrainian banks would be forced to leave or to be sold.

If the newly elected parliament refused to pass this draft bill, the National Bank of Ukraine would settle this problem by a sublegislative document – its own resolution. “We are authorized to settle this question by a statutory act but it would be better to pass the law. The NBU resolution will not strictly regulate the foreign share. It will be changed depending on the economic situation and needs in foreign capital,” Vasyl Pasichnyk the Chief of the NBU Legal Department commented in the interview to Delo daily.

According to Olena Vashchuk the member of VR Committee on Finance and Bank Activity, in the course of the negotiations with the USA Ukraine pledged to increase the import share of American chicken-meat (Bush’s trotters – Ukrainian slang). “For Ukrainian agriculture it is like the US bombs on Iraq,” said Vashchuk. She also added “Ukraine has already pledged itself to reduce the permissible quota of subsidy for the agrarian sector. Now it makes $1.1 bln instead of $1.4 bln. Our representatives in the negotiations agreed to keep the countryside at the same level although it needs 10-12 times more – as it is in the EU.” To make long story short, Ukraine conserves the agrarian question for many long years.

“As a matter of fact, the US decision to sigh the bilateral protocol with Ukraine was a surprise for us. Ukraine passed major part of the WTO standards and Americans should have signed the protocol last year, but they have preserved it as a gift for the President before the election. The parliament attitude towards the WTO directly depends on the results of the election,” mentioned Serhiy Kasyanov the Head of the Parliamentary-Governmental Committee on Ukraine’s WTO accession.