Protectionism measures will only hurt Ukraine in the long run.

Ukraine needs competition, as well as free and fair trade, more than many nations. Domestic business and manufacturing are still too much in the slimy grip of oligarchs and bureaucrats. So it is with dismay that we react to the undeserved 13 percent tariff that lawmakers have slapped on a host of imported consumer goods.

Starting March 6, imported beef, pork, sugar, alcohol, apples and many other everyday items will become more expensive. The aim is supposedly to curb imports, thereby narrowing Ukraine’s trade deficit, necessary to stabilize the country’s currency and prevent a banking sector collapse. This six-month stopgap duty will also protect domestic manufacturers and boost budget revenues. But it is a shortsighted strategy that will provide no long-term solutions.

The world’s leaders are flying blind and, within Ukraine, hypocrisy is running near all-time highs. The protectionist tariff comes from the same government whose leader proclaimed herself a free trader in a March 3 opinion piece published in the Moscow Times. “For Ukraine, Europe can help by embracing the free-trade agreement that we are now negotiating. Coupled with our successful membership in the World Trade Organization, Ukraine would stand to benefit when world and European trade begins to recover,” Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko wrote. At the same time, she managed to daintily hint that she could use a little money slipped into her purse to tide her (and her government) over until the sun shines more brightly over Kyiv. (We’ll pay you back after the election.)

As much as the 13 percent import duty violates our free-market sensibilities, we can’t ignore the fact that Ukraine’s economy – while not flat on its back – cannot stand on its own. We also can’t ignore the fact that rich nations on all continents directly subsidize their domestic industries to an extent that Ukraine could only dream about.

There is no magic solution in the short term. Banks are shaky due to Ukraine’s sliding currency, but there are other ways to protect them. And they should not be saved at the expense of solving deeper economic woes.

A wiser remedy to ending economic imbalances in Ukraine and other countries is not to cut imports with damaging protectionist policies, but to boost investment, thereby increasing efficiency and exports.

Here is how to do it in Ukraine: 1) privatize agricultural land and remaining state-owned assets; 2) lift investment-stifling price caps on domestically-produced hydrocarbons; 3) deregulate and finally commit to building a rule-of-law nation by coming down hard on corruption (we know, fat chance with this group, but a nation can't stop trying).

These steps, not protectionism, are the smart way to establish optimal trade and a floating currency that curbs inflation.

Protectionism will turn a global recession into a world depression if nations keep erecting trade barriers. International organizations and Ukraine’s trade partners should put Kyiv’s compromised leaders on notice that they need to remove trade and investment barriers, not build the castle walls higher. Otherwise, the nation could find itself on perpetual economic life support.