Yanukovych appears to be staying the course toward deeper European integration with a commitment to conclude a free-trade deal with the European Union by year’s end.
Such an agreement would further pry open Ukraine’s economy to the beneficial aspects of trade competition, begun when Ukraine joined the World Trade Organization in 2008.
Ukraine still trades more with former Soviet republics, led by Russia, than with the EU.”
– Kyiv Post.
Moving the nation to democracy and free trade is no easy task.
Russia is combining pressure and temptation in trying to keep Kyiv within its sphere of influence.
The latest salvo is the Kremlin promise of an $8 billion natural gas price discount. More carrot-and-stick inducements are likely to follow, intensifying as Kyiv gets closer to a free trade deal with Brussels.
Ukraine still trades more with former Soviet republics, led by Russia, than with the EU.
So staying on friendly terms with Moscow without joining the Customs Union will test Yanukovych’s political skills.
Joining the Customs Union would hurt Ukraine’s sovereignty and almost certainly foreclose deeper EU trade ties at tremendous long-term cost to the nation’s economy.
The EU, not Moscow, offers Ukraine the best alternative now for the nation’s citizens to gain a measure of prosperity and loosen their bonds to the corrupt political elite that runs Ukraine now.
Joining the Customs Union would hurt Ukraine’s sovereignty and almost certainly foreclose deeper EU trade ties at tremendous long-term cost to the nation’s economy.”
– Kyiv Post.
Russia and most former Soviet states offer nothing more than state-run crony capitalism and political authoritarianism.
But to make this large leap, Yanukovych’s words must finally be backed up by actions, requiring him to close the administration’s large gap between words and deeds.
Murky monopolies that benefit from official patronage need to be broken up, and the new ones emerging in the agricultural and energy sectors must be stopped if Ukraine is to be anything more than an oligarch playground.
It’s now time for Ukraine to finalize negotiations with the EU on a deep and lasting free trade pact.
