Financial Times (London, England)

July 7, 2005 Thursday
London Edition 1

SECTION: EUROPE; Pg. 12

LENGTH: 261 words

HEADLINE: Unruly Ukraine deputies impede passage of WTO legislation

BYLINE: By TOM WARNER

DATELINE: KIEV

BODY:


Ukraine's government yesterday struggled to push through a rowdy parliament measures necessary for the country to join the World Trade Organisation.

Yulia Tymoshenko, prime minister, and Volodymyr Lytvyn, the parliamentary speaker, needed to shout as opponents sounded sirens and scuffled briefly with pro-government deputies.

But the more serious obstacle was the lack of discipline within the eight parliamentary groups that support WTO membership and which should have delivered a majority but repeatedly failed.

Out of 15 WTO-related reform bills aired yesterday, five were adopted and three more passed a first reading. But five failed and two were postponed.

The government, which took power in January, is seeking to join the WTO at this December's summit in Hong Kong. This week's parliamentary votes, set to continue today, are crucial to meeting that ambitious target. Viktor Yushchenko, the president, had hoped to have the bills adopted before a meeting yesterday in Geneva of the WTO committee reviewing Ukraine's application. However, a person who attended the Geneva meeting said the mood was upbeat and members agreed the December date was still feasible if the bills passed by the end of this week.

Kiev has been rapidly concluding bilateral agreements with WTO member states - the second part of the WTO accession process - but still has tough talks ahead with the US and Australia, among others. Mr Yushchenko told parliament on Tuesday that remaining outside the WTO was costing Ukraine Dollars 1.6bn (Euros 1.2bn, Pounds 880m) a year in lost exports.

LOAD-DATE: July 7, 2005