Victor Yushchenko regards Ukraine’s accession to the WTO as his top home and foreign priority, Deputy Secretariat Chief of Staff Oleksandr Chalyi revealed Friday at a briefing.
“The President believes delays in Ukraine’s WTO accession will more negatively affect Ukraine’s economic development and foreign policy than parliamentary debates about negative consequences of this membership for national companies,” he said.
The only impediment on our way to the WTO is parliamentarians’ reluctance to pass necessary bills, he added.
“The other two things – signing bilateral protocols with Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan – are technical,” he said.
Oleksandr Chalyy said the President is going to conduct consultations with all parliamentary forces to persuade them to support the bills he had recently submitted, the president press office reported.
“This is particularly important to ensure that we become a member this year,” he said. “All the instruments we can use will be used to resolve this issue.”
When asked what benefits Ukraine would enjoy as a WTO member, Chalyy said it would help reduce prices and boost competition.
