UKRAINIAN-CZECH ECONOMIC LINKS: DIPLOMACY, TRADE, AND TOURISM (THE BEGINNING OF THE ХХІ CENTURY)

Abstract

The article’s purpose is in a complex manner to analyse Ukrainian-Czech economic cooperation throughout 2000-2017, particularly, in the sphere of economic diplomacy, trade, and tourism. The research methods. The methodological base for a systemic research into Ukrainian-Czech economic cooperation consists of general scientific principles and postulates, as also a wide spectrum of methods, which passed into the theory of international relations from philosophy, gnoseology, ontology, axiology, dialectics, logic, history, and other particular sciences. The results. It has been proved that the bilateral cooperation under consideration depended on the Ukrainian-Czech contract-legal base coordination level, which regulated their mutual relations, repayment prospects of Ukraine’s “Yamburg debt” to the Czech Republic, the scope of cooperation of each of the countries with the European Union, and level of tourist attraction. The main long-term economic interests of Ukraine in its relations with the Czech Republic were such: the development of an economic dialogue, the realization of the common Ukrainian-Czech economic and investment projects, and cooperation in tourism development. The economically-advisory dialogue between Ukraine and the Czech Republic, according to their bilateral interstate agreements, was carried out by the Ukrainian-Czech Commission on trade and economic cooperation, the Working group on the liberalization of their mutual trade, and by other institutional bodies. The expert consultations about the cooperation in the areas of tourism, power engineering, agriculture, banking, and other social components made up an effective form of economic dialogue. The signed inter-governmental and inter-departmental contract-legal certificates became an effective result of positive economic cooperation. The most active work in this direction was done on the eve and in the first years of Czechia’s membership in the European Union. Despite much work done, it did not bring about the possibility to solve problem questions and to eliminate existing barriers in the bilateral trade. After Czechia’s joining the EU, the improvement of a trading mode between the two countries rests within the plane of agreements and the development of a necessary contract-legal base with the EU. Conclusion. The bilateral economic cooperation between Ukraine and the Czech Republic has every prospect for further intensification, especially, in the sphere of statistics of the bilateral trade and economic relations, in Ukraine’s fulfilment of its commitments provided by “Yamburg agreements”, and in the popularizations of Ukraine’s positive tourist image.