A DEBATE ON FREE TRADE ZONE BETWEEN UKRAINE AND THE EU WAS HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY

A round table discussion “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Zone: Experience and Strategy” was held at the Faculty of Business and Financial Management of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv on May 17, 2017.

The event was organized by the Department of Economic Theory within the Jean Monnet Project 575,241-EPP-1-2016-1-UA-EPPJMO-MODULE “The Economy in European Integration: Internal Challenges and External Dimensions”.

At present, the European Union is one of the largest trade partners of Ukraine. About one third of Ukraine’s foreign trade turnover accounts for the EU countries, and the volume of direct investments in Ukraine from EU countries is 80% of the total investments in Ukraine.

Part of the Association Agreement on in-depth and comprehensive free trade zone (DCFTZ) provides for far-reaching simplification of the regulatory regime of mutual trade and relative harmonization of rules governing this sphere: both those related to the internal rules and those governing foreign trade policies. The overall objective of the zone will be gradual integration of Ukraine into the EU internal market. Therefore, research and discussion of the problems of improving the efficiency of cooperation with the EU in trade is of an immediate concern.

The roundtable discussion was attended by students and teachers of the Faculty of Business and Financial Management and guests: academics, experts, representatives of business and public sector.

The participants analyzed the theoretical nature of the concept of “Free Trade Zone”, discussed the economic and legal principles of its functioning according to the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, and also raised the issue of socio-economic, political and legal implications of the implementation of the DCFTZ in Ukraine. Special attention was focused on the first experience of the DCFTZ in Ukraine: interesting facts and successes.

In his opening speech the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Business and Financial Management financial management and business Andriy Stasyshyn emphasized the topicality of the discussion and the need for effective functioning of the DCFTZ between Ukraine and the EU in the context of socio-economic transformation of today that will provide additional access of Ukrainian goods to the EU market and will lead to harmonization of internal rules of economic policy in line with European standards.

Each student’s report was accompanied by interesting discussions, and often the debates. In particular, when discussing the conceptual nature of DCFTZ (report by student Mykhaylo Birchenko) a comment was made by the Head of the Department of European Law of the Faculty of International Relations, Professor Mykhaylo Mykiyevych, emphasizing the important issues in the field of legal regulation of economic activity in the performance of export-import operations, as well as that the main task of the state concerning the implementation of the Association Agreement with the European Union is to provide an effective competitive environment. In addition, the Professor made a brief legal analysis of the main provisions of this document.

While discussing the problems of increasing the efficiency of exports to the EU (Ulyana Schudlo) own opinion was expressed by the manager of West European Business Association Maryana Lutsyshyn. She shared the experience of their organization, citing specific examples of how to solve problems of business activity in the context of export-import operations, registration, licensing and more legally and without going beyond the legal framework.

The discussion also involved the founder of JSC “TEMPO” Rostyslav Lotosh. He noted that the company is engaged in trading food additives since the early 1990s. As for the impact of implementation of the DCFTZ, he said that in entering the foreign markets of EU, Ukrainian companies are facing lack of experience, imperfect Ukrainian legislation and the lack of effective information and publicity on the part of the authorities.

Students Olena Vapnichna, Olga Vashchuk, Liliya Dzhyhovska and Solomiya Baranova analyzed different aspects of the Association Agreement on access to markets of goods and services and reviewed such issues as tariff liberalization, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, technical standards, the activities of the “ProZorro” public procurement.

An important comment on these issues was made by an independent expert on international law and EU law, EU projects coordinator Oksana Holovko-Havrysheva. In particular, she noted that the first among the major obstacles when entering Ukrainian business in the EU market is a problem of overcoming psychological barriers (fear) in the minds of entrepreneurs concerning the unknown EU market. The peculiarity of the Ukrainian business is often the inability to defend own interests, to be in the wake of legislative initiatives, as do businesses in the European Union. The expert also emphasized the many unresolved legal issues.

Also of interest was the report of of the Institute of Business of the Main Trading School in Warsaw Adam Kalovski. First, he shared the experience of Poland in a free trade zone with the European Union. Adam Kalovski said that Ukraine follows the experience of Poles on many issues of implementation of the Association Agreement. Particular attention the Doctor paid to the question of the EU common agricultural policy and relevant experience of Poland.

Associate Professors Oksana Pikulyk, Lybov Peretyatko and Ivanna Myschyshyn took an active part in discussing these issues together with students.

Head of the Department of Economic Theory, Associate Professor Oleg Gupalo stressed the urgency of responding to the active influence of globalization when forming each country’s own trade policies and practices of the European Union in addressing these problems.

Lively discussions among participants caused student Petro Nazar’s report on the implementation of alternative energy in Ukraine.

The closing remarks were made by the Project Coordinator of Jean Monnet Program at the Department of Economics, Associate Professor Vasyl Zelenko. He spoke about the main achievements of Ukraine in the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU, especially in terms of the DCFTZ implementation, based on the results of experts’ researches and government reports on the implementation of the Association Agenda and Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

In the end, the roundtable discussion participants agreed on the need to continue and strengthen the cooperation initiated by teachers and students of the Faculty of Business and Financial Management with scholars, experts, representatives of businesses and public organizations in the field of “Economy in European Integration”.