Parliament prolongs moratorium on agricultural land trade until 2010

Yesterday, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted for the law #3353 “On amending some laws regarding dampening of the negative impact of the global financial turmoil on the development of the agricultural sector”, which contains a term on prolongation of the moratorium on agricultural land trade until January 1, 2010. The law was initiated by the Prime Minister Tymoshenko and was voted by all the fractions in the Parliament except for the Party of Regions, which refrained from voting. Anna Dudchenko: Earlier, we expected the moratorium on land trade to be lifted in 2009, as President Yushchenko was pushing the issue and expected all political forces to support cancellation of the moratorium as of January 1, 2009 (see our note from Oct.28, 2008). Officially, the adopted law is called to mitigate negative consequences of the economic crisis for Ukraine’s agriculture. In our view, prolongation of the moratorium means unwillingness of political forces to touch upon the complicated and politically sensitive issue of land sale in 2009, ahead of Presidential elections.