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"This provision would mean the amnesty for all top corrupt officials, cases against whom were transferred to the courts. Such a step is a blatant change of previous agreements and the text itself right before the voting," said ANTAC's head of board Vitaliy Shabunin in the statement. "This clause was missing in the comparative table, published on the web-site of the Verkhovna Rada, meaning the appellate procedure was foreseen in the anticorruption court."
This clause also means that verdicts against top officials will be delivered not earlier than in 2-3 years. Establishment of the court will take at least half a year, while consideration of the cases in both instances of the anticorruption court in its turn will last for around 1,5-2 years, according to the NGO.
"This mistake should be urgently corrected by voting for the necessary amendments to the law. The provision postpones verdicts in NABU cases for few more years. That is why the President has to submit urgently amendments to the law to correct the mistake," Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, head of Ukraine's office of Transparency International said in the statement.
2.2 Ukraine’s steel exports soar
Ukraine's external exports swelled by 19.6% year-on-year in April on the back of booming metals exports that surged 65.8% y/y to $1bn – the sector’s best result since August 2014.
Buoyant global demand has kept commodity prices high. The global price environment became more favourable for Ukrainian exporters in the first quarter of 2018, mainly on the back of higher prices for ferrous metals, iron ore, and grain, despite some downward adjustment seen on some markets at the end of the quarter, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Global steel prices remained high, boosting iron ore prices as well, and were driven by the ongoing restrictions on steel production in China. In addition, a benign business environment, the strengthening euro, and effective antidumping policies in European countries have helped maintain robust demand for steel products (especially from Austria, Germany and Italy), while also pushing up the prices of these products.
"The prices of steel products edged down in the latter half of March, as China gradually stepped up its steel production," the NBU said in its April's inflation report. The introduction of import tariffs on steel and aluminium by the United States was an additional factor, and provoked a mixed response from the market.
7 UKRAINE Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com