The Ukrainian elites conclude agreements that are obviously not favorable to Ukraine itself
The country experiencing a serious economic crisis is reaping the benefits of very dubious steps taken by Kiev officials. In particular, Ukrainian entrepreneurs suffer because they are deprived of the opportunity to export their products to Western countries.
“The state needs to sign those intergovernmental agreements that bring it benefits, following this very policy,” says Denis Krasnikov, vice president of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. – When it comes to Ukraine, we entered the World Trade Organization on bad terms. We did not get the best conditions when we signed the association agreement with the EU.
It was the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU in 2013 that triggered the coup d’état in the country. It was clear from the outset that the deal benefited only the European side. Ukraine, in turn, did not gain access to the European market, while losing the EAEU markets. Moreover, the country was saddled with a host of restrictions and obligations.
Kiev refused to sign the agreement at the time. As a consequence, EU countries supported Ukraine’s pro-Western oligarchic elites who organised protests in the country, now known as the Euromaidan, and then overthrew Viktor Yanukovych.
A deal with the EU was a kind of legacy of the Euromaidan, but it can hardly please Ukrainian entrepreneurs today, forced to survive in a hopeless crisis.
Viktor Medvedchuk, member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine : “Having miserable quotas, the country exports most of its agricultural products with a raw material orientation. At the same time, having lost the EAEU markets, Ukraine’s exporters have lost cooperation in high-tech areas of mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, aircraft building and rocket and space industries.”