Opportunities of Trade in Services between the EU and Ukraine: the Case of Telecommunications Services under the GATS and the Association Agreement

Abstract

This working paper studies the legal and regulatory conditions for trade in services between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine on the example of tele-communications services that are important carrier services for various business activities in the cross-border trade. The paper outlines the general frame-work for trade in services under the GATS as expressed in the commitments undertaken by Ukraine and examines the detailed provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement on trade liberalisation and regulatory approximation that is a WTO-extra agreement. It also provides an overview of the relevant Ukrainian legal and regulatory rules in order to assess the starting point for regulatory approximation. The paper intends to highlight internal contradictions of the Association Agreement representing a balancing act be-tween the liberalisation obligations under the WTO agreements and requirements of integration in the EU internal market. The paper argues that in short to middle term the Association Agreement does not offer much of value-added in comparison to the current GATS commitments in terms of services liberalisation. The juiciest "carrot" of the Association Agreement - the internal market treatment - is difficult to reach due to unclear and complicated rules on regulatory approximation.