March 17 2003, 16:27 APK-Inform

Appliance to WTO rules will not harm Ukrainian farm sector - Minister of Economy

Ukraine's Minister of Economy and for the Issues of European Integration Valery Khoroshkivsky said to a news conference March 17 that the speculations about a deadly blow that would be dealt to Ukrainian farm and food processing sectors after the opening of agricultural markets when Ukraine joined WTO, were completely mistaken.

He said WTO rules did not stipulate cancellation of state subsidising, but required maximal limit of such subsidising. He added that the policy of tax exemptions and preferences to agricultural producers was, to his opinion, inefficient and provided benefits only to intermediaries.

The minister thinks that Ukrainian market is protected from excessive imports of agricultural products by such factors as high transportation costs compared with those of locally produced commodities, absence of local distribution infrastructure for large amounts of imported agricultural commodities, low buying power of Ukrainian population and traditional consumer habits.

On the other hand, accession to WTO enable Ukrainian agricultural produce to enter European market and will encourage more investments to the industry.

At WTO accession talks Ukraine claims to be allowed $1.37 billion of domestic farm support.