WT/MIN(15)/ST/73
21 December 2015
(15-6802)  Page: 1/2
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: English
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MRS. NATALIA MYKOLSKA 
DEPUTY MINISTER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE 
UKRAINE  
I am honoured to address, on behalf of Ukraine, the 10th Ministerial Conference. 
 First of all, I would like to express gratitude to  the Government of the Republic of Kenya for a 
warm and hospitable welcome extended to the Conference’s delegates. 
 
I would also like to welcome the Republic of Libe ria and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the 
WTO.  
 
Since the last Ministerial Conference Ukraine ha s undergone critical developments, including a 
severe economic and trade crisis, mainly, due to an illegal annexation of Crimea, aggression in the 
East of Ukraine and the subsequent loss of production capacity in the conflict area, and barriers 
imposed by a major regional trading partner.  Despite the difficulties we are experiencing, the Ukrainian Government has launched and is 
consistently and vigorously implementing critical domestic reforms aimed, first of all, at 
macroeconomic stabilization. .   
Since exports traditionally amounts for over 50% of the country’s GDP, trade is and will be a 
critical part of Ukraine’s further economic recovery.   
Thus, Ukraine remains strongly committed to a predictable rules-based multilateral trading system 
and further liberalization of global trade. This year Ukraine has ratified the Agreement on Trade Facilitation and has been invited to join th e Agreement on Government Procurement. These 
agreements are seen as critical to our continue d domestic reform efforts and to improve trade 
opportunities for our companies. We are quite close to ratification of the Protocol Amending the 
TRIPS Agreement.  
We encourage other WTO Members to move forward with acceptance of the Trade Facilitation 
Agreement to further remove non-tariff barriers to trade and to reduce red tape and trade costs. Ukraine fully supports the mechanism of the international trade rules enhancement included in the 
DDA modalities package. 
 Our contribution particularly aimed at finding pr actical deliverables by implementing creative 
solutions. To identify and to strengthen the posi tive effect of trade not only on the economy in 
general, but on the economies of all developing countries. 
 We would like to see more progress on many of the issues. In particular, the export competition 
pillar in agriculture is doable now and must reduce and eliminate “all forms of export subsidies and 
all export measures with equivalent effect.” Ukraine successively stands at this position.  
Thus, we encourage Members to demonstrate flexibility  in the interest of strengthening Multilateral 
trading system and find consensus on the Decision on Export competition.  We believe creating fair competitive rules for agriculture trade must also include domestic support 
and market access. Ukraine proposes to define clear timeframe for addressing other core AG WT/MIN(15)/ST/73 
 
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  issues like Market Access, Domestic Support and Public Stockholding in “Post Nairobi” format. We 
remain concerned about the rigid distinctions made at the WTO between developing and developed countries.   
Our collective challenge is to face today’s economic realities and to find more sophisticated 
approaches that go beyond this rigid and outdated  country labels. Therefore, we can ensure that 
the WTO achieves fair trade liberalization and makes progress on shaping global trading rules.   
 
Unfortunately, we face that some WTO Members are not complying with its obligations undertook and introduce politically-motivated trade restrictions. In the year ahead, Ukraine will be using all instruments available to enforce our rights within WTO and to remove these barriers. We are 
looking for valuable, constructive trading relation ships with all WTO Members with due respect to 
the WTO rules.   
We look forward to being a reliable partner at the WTO that will contribute its perspective and 
experience to help forge solutions among members to move the WTO agenda forward.   
Ukraine is open for business and trade, and we wi ll be further reforming our economy, making it 
more business friendly for both domestic and foreign businesses.   As Ukraine is open for globalized and liberalized trade, we urge all of you to demonstrate your 
adherence to global one-level playing field for trade. As all of us know, actions speak louder than 
words.  
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