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Stepan Kubiv has reported. "China is a strategically important partner for Ukraine, our trade volume is constantly growing. During the eight months of 2018, the Ukrainian-Chinese bilateral trade in goods grew by 21%, to about $5.8bn," Kubiv said on Facebook.
Ukraine and Slovakia in the first half of this year increased trade turnover by 36%, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said. “The growth of commodity turnover between our countries amounted to 36% in the first half of the year,” Poroshenko told reporters in Kyiv after a meeting with Slovak President Andrej Kiska. According to him, this is another proof of the effective functioning of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, as well as the result of the free trade area “in the conditions when Russia, using the embargo mechanism as an element of the hybrid war, closed its markets.”
The share of Ukraine’s exports going to the EU has increased from 25% four years ago to 42% today , Hugues Mingarelli, head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, told DEF-2018, the Dnipro economic forum. He said: “We believe that the best way to unleash the potential of Ukraine is to enable it to integrate into the EU market.”
For goods alone, Ukraine’s exports to the EU grew by 16% to $14.6bn,
while imports from the EU grew by 13%, to $16.9bn. Exports of goods to Russia fell by 7.5% - to $2.7bn, while imports of goods from Russia grew by 21% to $5.8bn. That means despite managing to replace Russia with the EU, Ukraine is now running big trade deficits with both the EU and Russia. And in Russia’s case the deficit is getting bigger faster.
Chicken sales boosted Ukraine's meat exports by 21% in value y /y through September to $479mn, reports the Institute of Agrarian Economics. Poultry exports were up 29%, to $381mn.
German-Ukraine trade should increase ‘in the near future’ by almost 50%,
to EUR 10bn, Prime Minister Groysman said at a meeting with Chancellor Merkel in Kyiv. Bilateral trade this year is to hit EUR 7bn. Groysman and Merkel are to meet again on Nov. 29 in Berlin when they give the keynote speeches for the Third German-Ukrainian Business Forum.
Ukraine expects to export 90% of its 30mn ton bumper corn crop this year, largely to China, Egypt and the EU, Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association, tells Bloomberg. He said that China’s trade dispute with the US is providing an opening for Ukrainian corn. In addition, he predicts more barley and sunflower meal exports to Asia and a return of Ukrainian wheat to Vietnam.
Exports of iron, steel and ferroalloys through September hit $10.6bn, up 12% over the first nine months of last year, reports the State Statistics Service.
President Poroshenko said he has ambitions for trade with Turkey and ambitious economic goals beyond this year’s achievements of “20% growth in trade turnover, 20% increase in investment and 20% growth in the number of tourists visiting Turkey.” This year bilateral trade is to hit $4bn and the number of Ukrainians visiting Turkey is to hit 1.4mn. Cooperation agreements were signed between Turkey’s Undersecretariat for defence Industries and Ukroboronprom (SSM) and with the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination
37 UKRAINE Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com