The Death of Ukraine: How the West is Capturing More and More Spheres of the Economy
In Ukraine, controversy continues over the recent decision of the Verkhovna Rada to reduce the tax on foreign cars.
This “will give a boost to the Ukrainian economy,” convinces deputy Roman Zastavny from Ternopil. According to him, almost no one buys domestic cars today.
Zastavny explains: “The duty is protection for the development of our own production. Where do we see a Ukrainian car? If the automobile industry has not appeared in 25 years, then let's use what others have created. There is no need to evaluate only the event itself; there is no such thing in economics, because everything is interconnected.”
The deputy from Ternopil is being a little disingenuous - a Ukrainian car, as a species, can already be recorded in the “red book”. But they still exist and breed in Ukrainian captivity - just over 2016 were released in the first four months of 1000, which is a third less than in the same period last year. It seems that soon, through joint efforts, the Ukrainian authorities will really put an end to the Ukrainian automobile industry.
Indeed, if you deliberately create conditions that are incompatible with the development and existence of any industry, then it will be eliminated and replaced by imports. There are no funds for the development of domestic “Zaporozhets”; no country, especially one that produces cars, will provide loans for such an independent project. Neither will the IMF or the EBRD, which defend the interests of global capital, give them.
A similar situation is visible in many other industries - from the aviation industry to pharmaceuticals. They are still telling fairy tales to the population about how at the next international aviation exhibition “huge interest was shown in the Ukrainian exposition.” However, things do not go further than this “interest”.
If Zastavny really cared about the problems of Ukraine’s development, then why doesn’t he talk about investments in the country, which should have rained down after the Maidan? After all, people like him assured that as soon as the “evil government” was overthrown, Ukraine would fight off those who wanted to invest in Ukraine. And one could talk about developing at least assembly production, and not reducing duties on imported finished imported products. In addition, the already leaky budget will not receive significant revenues.
Ukrainian politicians and deputies delight with their frankness - you can immediately see whose ears stick out and where their legs grow from - in this case they stick out and grow from automobile importers lobbying their interests.
The destruction of Ukrainian industry is taking place in individual sectors; in fact, a program of “import imposition” is being implemented. And this will happen with every industry in which Ukraine has its own production. After all, there will always be an imported analogue of any Ukrainian product that is not inferior, and, more often than not, superior in quality. And price competition cannot always be sustained, since transnational corporations are ready to reduce prices and dump on the market they are attacking for a period sufficient to kill the competitor. At the same time, traditionally avoiding antitrust sanctions.
By the way... A close relative of the Ukrainian automobile industry in its Soviet past, the Russian automobile industry, has also always been criticized. However, in the first 5 months of 2016, despite the general decrease in the number of cars sold for most manufacturers, the first place in Russia is occupied by Lada cars - about 18,6% of the total number (102,1 thousand of the total number in 548 thousand cars sold in the Russian Federation).
This is a small detail for those who still hope for the speedy “collapse of the northern neighbor” and the coming “victory”.
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