The European Union and China have signed a trade agreement. This agreement was promptly dubbed historic, for, as was stressed, it opens to China its long-coveted road to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The deal was also called historically important for another reason: it is expected that Beijing, while preparing for WTO membership, will be compelled to introduce the required changes to further liberalize the Chinese economy.
It might seem Kyiv should receive this news without too much glee. For Ukraine once hoped to sign a free-trade agreement with the European Union somewhere in late 1998. Then the date was put off indefinitely. Negotiations between Kyiv and the WTO are also in the absolutely the same shape.
The main actors on the world stage, the United States and European Union, have stressed repeatedly they are interested in Ukraine’s further integration in international commercial, economic, and financial mechanisms, but this also requires that Ukraine itself be interested in this not in word, as was the case up to now, but with deeds. In other words, what is needed is trade liberalization, creating equal conditions for all investors rather than allowing them to win some privileges, and drawing up some clear and lasting rules of the game, especially in tax law. In fact, nothing special and extraordinary was required.
One more small detail: in the years that have passed since Deng Xiaoping began his series of reforms, China has obviously turned into a world economic power keeping practically the whole world, especially the West, in need of trade with it. The EU countries, the United States, Japan, et al. willingly invest in China because its cheap and industrious workforce and a clear, if not always legal, relationship with the authorities interested in the influx of capital make all the other points not so important. Problems with democracy, human rights, and Tibet are easily forgotten when it comes to obvious business advantages, and the production of various consumer goods in prison concerns nobody when large profits loom ahead. It is the dependence of world markets on China, not the other way round, that stimulates the growing rapprochement between China and the world centers. Conversely, Ukraine, whose problems differ very little from those in China at first glance, has in fact found itself only a few steps away from finally losing its once sizable potential. The Chinese example shows that one has to start the ball rolling without waiting for official agreements.
And one more lesson should perhaps be learned fast from the Chinese example: China has asked nobody to recognize it as a European (or Asian) country. It has simply made consistent efforts to force others to recognize its significance.
