Statement of the EU Delegation about Ukraine’s intention to revise its WTO commitments

March 16, 2013.

    The EU Delegation in Ukraine was surprised to read comments by Valeriy Pyatnitskiy, the Ukrainian government's envoy for European Integration, that the EU has not provided any information on its request for Ukraine to withdraw its proposed revision of its WTO commitments.
    
    Since Ukraine introduced its request last October, the EU has taken a consistent and very clear line against the proposal. The EU's view is that Article 28 of GATT, under which Ukraine has made its proposal, is not designed to renegotiate such a large part or the whole of a WTO Member's accession commitments downwards, and there is no precedent for such a major revision, particularly coming so soon after Ukraine's accession. Our view is shared by the overwhelming majority of WTO Members as more than 120 of them expressed their concerns about Ukraine's notification at the General Council meeting held in December 2012. This demonstrates the seriousness of this issue both to individual WTO Members and to the WTO system as a whole. We have made our views quite clear on all occasions in formal and informal contacts with the Ukrainian authorities in Brussels, in Geneva and in Kyiv and we repeat it again now: it would be in the interests of all WTO Members for Ukraine to withdraw its notification.
    
    Commissioner De Gucht passed this message personally to Vice Prime Minister Boyko, Minister Prasolov and Mr Pyatnitskiy when he met them in Brussels on 23 January 2013 and a similar message was passed to Ukraine at the recent summit in Brussels on 25 February.
    
    We would like to point out that efforts to resolve this issue have been hindered by Ukraine's failure to provide the precise details of its request. We know which 371 tariff lines Ukraine wishes to amend, but 5 months after Ukraine's announcement, we still do not know what new tariffs are proposed, nor do we have information about the compensatory measures that Ukraine is required to offer us under WTO rules. The EU has formally written to Ukraine (in December 2012) outlining which tariff lines we have an interest in, but discussions cannot proceed until Ukraine provides us, and other WTO members, with the necessary information.
    
    We also wish to emphasize that Ukraine's actions under GATT Article 28 act against Ukraine's own stated interests in signing and ratifying the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement / DCFTA. It is difficult to reconcile this notification with the letter and the spirit of the DCFTA.