Page 34 - UKRRptMar19

5.2.1 Import/export dynamics
External 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 balance
2015 2016
2017 2018 E F
Exports (US$bn) 61.4 82.5 52.1 65.6 83.7 86.5 81.7 65.4 47.6 44.9 60.2 60.8
Imports (US$bn) 69.5 96.8 54 69.6 93.8 100.9 97.4 70 49 50.3 54.6 57.2
Trade balance -8.1 -14.4 -2 -4 -10.1 -14.3 -15.6 -4.6 -1.5 -2.9 -5.3 -6.4 (US$bn)
Trade balance -5.7 -7.8 -1.7 -2.9 -6.2 -8.2 -8.7 -3.5 -1.6 -5.8 -4.4 -5.9 (% of GDP)
Source: ICU
Russian Federation remained Ukraine’s main trade partner in 2018, despite mutual trade restrictions imposed in 2016. In 2018, Ukrainian exports to other countries amounted to $47.3bn, an increase of 9.4% compared with 2017, according to the figures released by the State Statistics Service on February 19. The biggest share of the country’s exports ($3.7bn) still falls on Russia, despite a 7.2% decrease, which is followed by Poland ($3.3bn), Italy ($2.6bn), Turkey ($2.4bn), Germany and China ($2.2bn each). All in all, 42.5% of Ukrainian exports ($20.2bn) fell on EU countries last year. Among importers, Russia also remains the first. In 2018, imports of Russian goods to Ukraine rose by 12.3% compared with 2017 to $8.1bn. China was the second ($7.6bn), followed by Germany ($5.9bn), Belarus ($3.8bn), and Poland ($3.6bn). Total Ukrainian imports equaled $57.1bn last year, an increase of 15.2% compared with 2017, with 40% ($23.2bn) falling on EU countries.
In the first three weeks of January, Ukraine used up its entire 2019 quotas for duty-free exports to the EU for corn, honey, grapes and apple juice, reports, the Ukrainian Agricultural Business Association. Other quotas are going fast: starch – 17%; sugar – 38%; and wheat fiber --44%. Last year, Ukraine tied Argentina as the fourth largest food supplier to the EU.
Ukraine has passed the halfway marker in implementing the massive EU-Ukraine Association Agreement of 2017, according to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, deputy prime minister for European Integration. This year’s priority sectors for harmonizing laws and rules are: judiciary, energy, customs, and the digital market. Of the overall task of shifting Ukraine from Russian and Soviet standards, the work is 52% done, she told a Kyiv conference reviewing the Agreement. Hugues Mingarelli, EU ambassador, said: “There are areas where progress has been very, very limited: customs, taxation, transport, intellectual property rights.”
Over 15,000 Ukrainian companies have qualified to export to the EU. This business battalion expanded Ukraine’s EU exports by two thirds since the Maidan – from 25% in 2014 to 42% last year. According to the EU-Ukraine conference, the main buyers are Ukraine’s exports are: Poland – 17%; Italy - 14%; Germany – 10%; Hungary – 8%; and the Netherlands – 8%.
Food exports increased by 5% last year, to a record $18.8bn , reports the
34 UKRAINE Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com