On May 16, 2008, Ukraine became a fully-pledged member of the World Trade Organization whose major task is to secure easy, free and predictable international trade transactions. Beside a number of benefits the membership in WTO gives to both member countries and consumers, accession to WTO involves also assuming certain commitments. The EU-funded Project "Implementation of Ukraine's Commitments under WTO and ENP Frameworks in the Rural Sector (Sector-Wide Approach)" is intended to facilitate fulfilling Ukraine's commitments regarding changes in the agrarian sector, which Ukraine assumed when joining WTO. The Project objective is to promote close collaboration between Ukraine and EU and harmonization of Ukrainian standards with WTO requirements to the Ukrainian agrarian sector. Due to the Project, the Ukrainian agriculture producers will get an access to external markets and be assisted in creating proper conditions for free civilized trade at the domestic market.
The Project is fully funded by the European Union. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine is Project beneficiary. The Ukrainian sector-wide approach is employed in implementation of the Project.
The Project consists of three technical components aiming at improvements in food safety, market infrastructure and rural developments and a general administrative component under which Project experts help the Ministry of Agrarian Policy enhance its managerial/administrative capacities and coordinate application of the sector-wide approach through activities under the said three components.
Each component includes a number of specific activities, namely:
– Institutional development envisages improving coordination of donors' efforts in the agrarian sector, promoting EU-Ukraine political dialog, and strengthening MAP institutional capacities;
– Under the food safety component, Project experts will work on improving the Ukrainian food safety system and harmonization of Ukrainian food standards with international ones;
– Under market infrastructure development component, the Project will provide assistance in implementation of the National Program of Wholesale Agriculture Markets, draft regulations and develop design solutions needed to develop the wholesale market network, and support development of a concrete wholesale market in a pilot region;
– Under rural development component, the Project will be involved in development and public discussion of the national rural development strategy, ensure sharing information by NGOs and other stakeholders through web site and Internet portal development, and set up a task force to coordinate other similar projects that are funded by EU.
The duration of the Project is 38 months (through December 2011). Individual components will be implemented in such pilot regions as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Cherkasy, Odesa, Lviv, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
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