WT/MIN(17)/ST/51  
 
15 December 2017  
(17-6975)  Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Eleventh Session  
Buenos Aires, 10 -13 December 2017  Original: English  
 
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR . STEPAN KUBIV  
FIRST VICE PRIME MINISTER OF UKRAINE , MINISTER OF ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT 
AND TRADE OF UKRAINE  
UKRAINE  
First of all, on behalf of Ukraine, I would like to express sincere gratitude to the Government and 
people of the Argentine Republic for a warm and hospitable welcome extended to the Conference’s 
delegates.  
 
Ukraine remains strongly committed to the multi lateral trading system and supports Members' 
efforts to improve the existing trade rules and to develop new ones . 
 
Ukraine believes that it is extremely important to improve the disciplines on domestic support in 
agriculture and to prevent the use of trade -distorting measures.  
 
Differences in approaches to certain issues are certainly a challenge for our community, but 
Members have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to find mutually acceptable solutions and 
achieve their goals for development of the worl d trade.  
 
We believe that further liberalization and improvement of trade rules and disciplines will contribute 
to "leveling the playing field" between the WTO founding Members and Members, which have 
acceded under Article XII of the WTO Agreement.  
 
Equall y important challenge  for Members is to ensure the proper implementation of commitments 
and compliance with provisions of the WTO agreements.  
 
Unfortunately, we have recently witnessed tendency towards the introduction of numerous trade 
restrictive measure s by some Members.  
 
We would like to urge Members to refrain from applying new trade restrictive measures, as well as 
to remove the existing ones, which may not be justified by the  WTO rules.  
 
In this regard, the role of the WTO dispute settlement system is of paramount importance. For 
many years this system has been an effective tool for resolution of trade disputes, and it is 
rightfully called "the jewel in the crown of the WTO".  
 
Ukraine calls upon all Members to do their utmost in order to ensure the p roper functioning of the 
dispute settlement system as the most efficient international dispute settlement mechanism.  
Despite the well -known external challenges, Ukraine continues, persistently and decisively, 
implementing extensive and comprehensive reform s in all areas of public life.  
 
The WTO rules are an additional incentive for the implementation of internal reforms. Ukraine 
became a party to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement in 2016. Since then Ukraine has 
introduced an up -to-date system of tran sparent electronic government procurement ProZorro and 
initiated a pilot project to create an international portal under the ProZorro Go -Global initiative.  
 
We ratified the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation in 2015. And currently  the Government of 
Ukrain e is taking measures to deregulate foreign trade, establish an efficient "single window" and 
improve the business climate.  WT/MIN(17)/ST/51  
 
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We must do our best to make this Conference a step forward in strengthening the multilateral 
trading system – in the interests of gr owth, development, job creation, raising living standards in 
the world and ensuring the optimal use of the world’s resources in accordance with the objective of 
sustainable development.  
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