On the morning of 10 April 2008 the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament, ratified the Protocol on Accession to the WTO. The President, Victor Yushchenko, signed the bill into law and officially notified the General Council of the WTO on 16 April 2008. Ukraine will become a fully-fledged member of the trade group on 16 May, 30 days after the General Council received official notice of the ratification.
In order to fulfil Ukraine's accession obligations, a series of ten laws need to be adopted on matters ranging from insurance and intellectual property to foreign economic activity. Drafts of all these laws have been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada and, on 10 April 2008, immediately following the ratification of the Protocol on Accession, five of these laws passed their first reading. It is not expected that the need to adopt these laws will impact on Ukraine's accession.
Ukraine first applied to join the WTO in 1993. After more than 14 years of negotiation, on 5 February 2008, the General Council of the WTO approved the terms for Ukraine's accession. Since then, Ukraine and the EU have begun preliminary discussions for the creation of a free trade agreement, which, considering the EU is Ukraine's number one trading partner, could bring significant benefits for both sides. For more information on the terms of the agreement on Ukraine's accession to the WTO and the potential impact that membership may have on Ukraine's economy, please see our previous article which we published at the time. [Click here]
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The original publication date for this article was 23/04/2008.