Sunday, June 3, 2007

Govt approves bills necessary for WTO accession

The Cabinet of Ministers approved bills necessary for Ukraine's accession to the WTO and sent them to the parliament, First Vice Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told journalists Wednesday. "Now we will work with VR committees to pass them as soon as possible," he added.

In his turn, Economy Minister Anatoliy Kinakh said the bills concern taxation of the agricultural sector, the intellectual property rights protection and other "technical" issues.

As Foreign Minister Yatsenyuk said, there is a bill among those approved by the Govt Wednesday on the customs tariff, under which the new system of description and coding of goods being introduced and is based on the international GS2002 system.

Also the bill "On export customs duty on scrap alloy ferrous metals, scrap non-ferrous metals and semi-made products and their use", which provides for introduction of cut tariffs for export custom duty on these articles when Ukraine joins the WTO, was brought in compliance with the WTO.

In correspondence with liabilities Ukraine assumed at negotiations with the USA, the Govt has approved the bill "On export customs duty on wastes and scrap ferrous metals", which puts cut tariffs of export customs duty on scrap metals into effect, since the fact of Ukraine's accession to the WTO and not in a year after the accession.

According to Yatsenyuk, the bill on export duty on oil seed suffered changes, too, it cancels indicative prices for this produce.