In a bid to jump-start its struggling auto assembly industry, Ukraine has introduced yet another tax on auto imports, infuriating officials at the European Union and further jeopardising any chance of signing planned association and free trade agreements with the EU in the autumn.
Signing those agreements would significantly weaken
Mosocow’s pull on Kiev, putting it on a steady path towards EU integration. But
the agreements were already in doubt after the jailing of opposition leader
Yulia Tymoshenko. Now they are even more doubtful.
Monday marked two years that Tymoshenko has been behind
bars. And there is little sign that Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine’s president,
will cave in to rising pressure from the EU to release his biggest rival and
reverse a broader roll-back on democracy.
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