In July, exports grew faster than imports, but the external trade deficit remained high. One factor driving the accelerated recovery of exports was the earlier grain harvest this year. Additionally, exports of metallurgy and mineral products continued to increase. Meanwhile, imports rebounded due to a rise in electricity imports, which enabled industrial enterprises to continue operations despite scheduled power outages in July. These and other changes in exports, imports, and business challenges are outlined by IER experts in the second issue of the External Trade Monitoring.
Changes are also occurring or being planned in Ukraine's trade policy. Notably, the Ministry of Economy is planning to update the Export Strategy. Regarding trade policy developments in other countries, much of the focus has been on China.
In this issue of the Monitoring, experts also briefly outlined the changes in trade liberalization measures implemented by the EU for Ukraine at the start of the full-scale invasion. For certain agricultural products, duty-free quotas have been reinstated; some of these quotas have already been used, leading to the reimposition of tariffs on Ukrainian imports of these goods. However, tariffs remain suspended for industrial goods. More details are available in our Monitoring.
This report became possible due to the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine.
