Ukraine may become the party to the proceeding on illegal export restriction as the country, which does not fulfill its obligations under EU free trade area agreement, UNIAN reports.

This was said by Executive Director of International Bleyzer Foundation Oleg Ustenko, commenting on the moratorium on the export of unprocessed timber, introduced a year ago.

“Ukraine is the WTO member, and within this organization any export restrictions are unacceptable. The country, which does not fulfill such requirements, will face hearings on illegal export restrictions in Geneva. The same goes for export duties, if we introduced them on the export of round timber. We may not restrict export within WTO”, - Oleg Ustenko noted.

According to him, the impediments to free trade in modern world are viewed as the archaism, which very badly characterizes the economic policy of the country.

“Today, any European manufacturer can submit documents from his association, for example, furniture manufactures, to the European Commission for Consideration of Disputes on Illegal Export Restrictions on the part of Ukraine – and win. Then we will have painful reputational losses. In fact, the Europeans forgave us for the year of such behavior with moratorium”, the expert added. 

Oleg Ustenko emphasized the fact that the refusal of Ukraine from moratorium on the timber export to EU is connected with provision of macrofinancial aid, amounting to EUR 1.2 bln. “EU made a clear statement: either Ukraine lifts export restrictions, or the issue of macrofinancial aid, which Europeans will use as a carrot for Ukraine, is at risk. But if we are not going to fulfill our obligations under EU free trade agreement, then soon the question will be raised in other area: is Ukraine going to fulfill other obligations?”, - Executive Director of International Bleyzer Foundation warned.

In his opinion, we have time for settling this issue with moratorium in Ukraine until January 1, 2017, when the law on export ban will come into force.

“Ukraine traditionally believes that it will be able to somehow say one thing and do another. It is not the right approach. However, we still have time for settling this issue until January 1”, Oleg Ustenko noted.

As reported, in April 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law, which imposed 10-year ban on the export of unprocessed wood and sawn wood products. In particular, since November 1, 2015, it is forbidden to export from Ukraine the wood products of timber species (except for the pine). The moratorium on the export of timber species will become effective from January 1, 2017.