
Ukraine will join the World Trade Organization by November 2007, President Victor Yushchenko said on Friday in a speech to workers of the Novator company in Khmelnitsky, according to President's press office.
“We will join the WTO in three or four months, definitely by November,” he said, pledging to ensure the country adopts all the necessary laws for this.
Yushchenko said Ukraine’s WTO accession “will enable our workers to work worldwide and protect them from anti-dumping prosecutions in any corner of the globe.”
The president said his government was involved in active talks with investors. “It would be impossible to find clients for such serious companies as, for example, Novator, [without such talks]. We would like to see our manufacturers competitive,” he said, adding that they should follow the rules the rest of the world follows.
Yushchenko said Ukraine and the European Union were in talks to sign an enhanced cooperation agreement, aimed at establishing a free trade zone. He said experts claimed this would result in 2-4% GDP growth and described these negotiations as successful.
Yushchenko said Ukraine had considerably improved its relations with the European Union in the past two years and added that its “European aspirations mean absolutely new prospects for our state.”