Votes on WTO-related bills reveal cracks in Yushchenko coalition (07/17/05)

Votes on WTO-related bills reveal cracks in Yushchenko coalition

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Despite the failure of President Viktor Yushchenko's government to pass all the laws necessary for World Trade Organization membership, the battle proved a valuable litmus test after which the political scene is suddenly clearer.

Critical allies during the Orange Revolution, namely Oleksander Moroz's Socialist Party and Volodymyr Lytvyn's People's Party, demonstrated they aren't stalwarts anymore.

They helped deliver a significant blow to the Yushchenko government when voting against a package of 14 WTO bills, preferring to vote on each bill separately in order to protect special interests on certain issues.

For example, a majority of the Socialists supported the bill of intellectual property rights, but did not vote on other WTO measures, such as necessary changes to export tariffs on scrap metal and changes to the automobile industry.

Following the WTO legislative battle, in which the Rada approved only eight out of 14 necessary bills, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she considers the parties of Mr. Moroz and Mr. Lytvyn her opponents. She accused Mr. Lytvyn of sabotage.

"Last week, the Ukrainian and global citizenry bore witness to planned provocations in the Verkhovna Rada hall," Ms. Tymoshenko said. "It's a pity to say, but the leadership of the law-making organ is directly responsible for preferring to preserve social and economic tensions in society."

It was Mr. Lytvyn who struggled to hold the Rada together as it descended into chaos on July 6 and 7 when pro-Russian national deputies resorted to everything in their political handbook, including violence, to prevent approval of WTO measures.

President Yushchenko, as usual, was much more conciliatory in his remarks after the WTO battles, even leaving the door open for Mr. Lytvyn's party to join the Our Ukraine bloc. He said negotiations should begin in the fall.

Mr. Lytvyn's party was much more supportive in voting for the WTO measures than the Socialists. However, Our Ukraine People's Union Chair Roman Bezsmertnyi said regional heads of his party have expressed reservations about working with People's Party members who not long ago supported President Leonid Kuchma.

Up until the WTO vote, Our Ukraine People's Union leaders had repeated their expectation that their party would form a powerful political coalition with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the People's Party of Ukraine going into the critical March 26 parliamentary elections. Now such a coalition is in doubt.

"The government was surprised that these hypothetical allies might actually oppose them and cause problems," said Oleksander Lytvynenko, a political expert at the Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research.

Mr. Lytvyn is not to blame for the failure, Mr. Lytvynenko said. Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko did not invest the necessary time to prepare the Rada and rally the necessary votes, he said.

"They should have prepared the ground for voting, not in the way it was with the former government," Mr. Lytvynenko said. "They did almost nothing."

Ms. Tymoshenko has vehemently denied accusations by national deputies and political observers that her government had waited for the last minute in preparing the WTO bills for presentation to the Parliament.

Rather, she claims her opponents hatched a conspiracy to block the WTO bills.

Accusations that the bills were not written properly or that voting on them as a package was illegal are also false, she said. Her opponents created political schemes to stop the government's work, she said.

"I want to deny those unjustified statements, which have been flying about, that the government submitted these bills at the last minute," Ms. Tymoshenko said. "In the last minute, certain leaders of certain factions and committees sucked the government's blood, to the last drop, by introducing amendments."

During an official visit to Austria on July 12 and 13, Mr. Yushchenko said he now expects Ukraine will enter the WTO by December, just before the global summit in Hong Kong.

Minister of the Economy Serhii Teriokhin echoed that projection at a July 12 press conference in Kyiv. He described last week's antics in the Rada as an embarrassment for Ukraine and admitted they were humiliating for Mr. Yushchenko, who was in attendance on July 6.

Mr. Teriokhin also echoed the prime minister's disappointment with the members of the coalition that was supposed to have upheld the WTO bills.

"I said that you must determine your position," Mr. Teriokhin said, referring to a conversation at a Cabinet meeting. "When the team has made a decision, when the decision is approved and the signatures are obtained, then you have to come out in support or not. Anything else is not possible."

He was referring specifically to Agricultural Policy Minister Oleksander Baranivskyi, a member of the Socialist Party, and he suggested that the minister be dismissed for his lack of support for the government program.

The projections of Ukraine's December entry into the WTO offered by Messrs. Yushchenko and Teriokhin are reasonable, said Mr. Lytvynenko of the Razumkov Center.

The Yushchenko government is likely to raise the remaining WTO bills once the Parliament begins its fall session on September 6, he added.

Before then, the Yushchenko government will work on ratifying all bilateral protocol agreements and accomplishing all legal requirements for international standardization, he said.

Six bilateral protocol agreements are virtually complete, Mr. Teriokhin said, and four are still on the drawing board.

President Yushchenko will sign a bilateral protocol with Japan during his visit to that country at the end of July, Mr. Teriokhin said. Agreements with Australia, China and the U.S. still remain to be agreed upon, he said.

WTO membership is the top economic goal of Mr. Yushchenko's presidency because it is the first step in drawing Ukraine's economy closer to the West.

It is also important for Ukraine to join the WTO before Russia, which may impose unfavorable trade conditions on Ukraine and delay Ukraine's admission. Any country entering the WTO gets to set trade conditions for forthcoming members.

"I am absolutely certain Ukraine will enter WTO by the end of the year," Mr. Teriokhin said.

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