The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs has voted in favor of a new, fourth Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) for Ukraine, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has said. The MFA should also be considered by European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, he said. “I hope for tomorrow’s support amid voting by the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, where three weeks ago, [I] jointly with Commissioner of the European Commission Pierre Moscovici presented the importance of the next macro-financial assistance program for the Ukrainian economy and the continuation of the reform process,” Danyliuk wrote on Facebook on May 16.
As reported, under the third MFA, Ukraine received two tranches from the EU to the tune of EUR 1.2 billion out of the earmarked EUR 1.8 billion. The EC refused to grant a third tranche, as the country’s authorities had fulfilled only 17 of the 21 conditions.
In March 2018, the European Commission approved a fourth macro-financial assistance program for Ukraine worth EUR 1 billion, which is subject to approval by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
The flow of agricultural goods between Ukraine and the European Union (EU) in January-March 2018 totaled $2.2 billion, according to a posting on the website of the Institute of Agrarian Economy research center. Deputy Director of the center Mykola Puhachev said that the surplus was $845 million. “In Q1 2018, both imports grew by 27%, to $669 million and exports by 15%, to $1.513 billion year-over-year,” he said.
The largest trade partners of Ukraine in the EU are Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Germany and France, with the total share of the agricultural goods flow of over 72%. According to the report, grain and oilseeds, as well as sunflower oil and meal provide for the main volumes of supplies from Ukraine to Europe.
Ukraine imports mainly grain, oilseeds, cacao beans and chocolate, various food, waste of processing industry, spirit and alcohol.
Puhachev said that in January-March 2018, Ukrainian exporters fully used duty free quotas for what, corn, honey, apple and grape juices, malt, the quarterly quota for poultry and the half-year quota for butter. For other food the average usage of quotas is rather low.
“In 2018, the quotas for some goods are growing as it was planned, in particular, sugar, starch, juices, barley cereal, wheat, corn, lamb meat and other products. In addition, preferential quotas for eight goods are in effect for Ukraine: honey, grape juice, barley cereal, preserved tomatoes, oats, wheat, corn and barley,” the expert said.
The Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute (Ukrpatent) issued 239 patents for inventions and useful models in the processing industry in 2017, including 42 in the sphere of production of key pharmaceutical products and medicines, which is the largest figure in the past five years. Ukrpatent told Interfax-Ukraine that in 2016, Ukrpatent issued 29 patents to national producers in the sphere of pharmaceutical production, 10 in 2015, seven in 2014 and 19 in 2013.
In January-March 2018, Ukrpatent issued 61 patents for inventions and utility models in the processing industry, including five in production of basic pharmaceutical products and medicines. In the first quarter of 2016 and 2017 in the field of pharmaceutical production, 11 patents were issued, in 2014 – none, in 2014 – four.
At the same time, Ukrpatent told Interfax-Ukraine that “Ukrainian legislation in the field of protection of rights to utility models and industrial designs does not provide for a qualification examination, so sometimes unfair applicants apply for facilities that are already in the economic flow.”
Ukrpatent reminded that in Ukraine patents for industrial designs and utility models are issued using the declarative system, which does not provide for a qualification examination, which, in the institute’s opinion, corresponds to a fairly widespread international practice.
In this case, the qualification examination can either be conducted, or not conducted, or carried out under a shortened procedure. According to the institute, in 2017, Ukrpatent received 2,480 applications for industrial designs, 9,105 applications for utility models and 4,048 applications for inventions. At the same time, Ukrpatent said that the term “declarative patent” is currently absent in the legislation of Ukraine.
INSTITUTE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, PATENTS, PHARMA PRODUCTION
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday passed at first reading bill No. 3871 amending some Ukrainian laws regarding the ban on the use of palm oil in food. A total of 233 lawmakers backed the document.
The bill proposes amending the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine, the laws on milk and dairy products, on the key principles and requirements to safety and quality of food. The amendments introduce administrative punishment for production and sale of food with palm oil content. It is banned to use palm oil in production of dairy products and food made in Ukraine.
The violation of the law implies a fine from 20 to 100 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (UAH 17) imposed on officials. The repeated violation committed during one year after imposing the first fine entails a fine from 100 to 200 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens.
The State Export Control Service of Ukraine has designed a draft anti-corruption program for 2018-2019. According to the document posted on the website of the authority, the program is intended to create the effective corruption prevention and reveal system in the authority based on new principles of making and implementing the anti-corruption policy.
Among measures to be taken is the analysis of data in relation to corruption risks in the authority, as well as factor that give rise to it; regular monitoring of the implementation of tasks and functions by the authority with the purpose of revealing and removing conditions giving rise to corruption risks and corruption crimes.
The measures also include the provision of financial supervision through declaration of property, income, expenses of officials and employees of the authority, creation of proper conditions for receiving information from whistleblowers who exposes corruption and crimes linked to corruption and the creation of the system of their protection and keeping information in secret.
According to the analysis of corruption risks posted on the website of the authority, corruption risks with medium and high priority are the following: providing advice on processing and submission of necessary documents in the field of export control to the authority; acceleration or delay in the processing of applications of subjects of international transfers of goods to obtain permits for the right to export and import military goods; a lack of a clear procedure for investigating offenses in the sphere of state export control and a lack of authority of the relevant department to identify these offenses independently; leakage of information from electronic databases operating by the authority and other risks.
