In Q1 2024, EU imports from Ukraine dropped, exports up
In the first quarter of 2024, the European Union’s imports from Ukraine were lower than in the same quarter of 2023 while exports to the Ukraine were higher, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on May 30.
In the first quarter of 2024, imports from Ukraine (six billion euro) were lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (6.5 billion euro) while exports increased slightly from 9.6 billion euro to 9.7 billion euro in this period.
Imports peaked in the second quarter of 2022, while exports peaked in the fourth quarter of 2023. This caused the EU trade surplus with Ukraine to peak in the fourth quarter of 2023 at 4.7 billion euro.
Between the second quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, compared with one year earlier, the shares for imports from Ukraine of sunflower oil, maize, soya bean oil, iron and steel, and rape or colza seeds increased while the share for wood decreased.
Looking at the changes in Ukraine’s shares in extra-EU trade, there was little variation. Import shares fluctuated between 0.8 per cent and 1.1 per cent while export shares fluctuated between 1.1 per cent and 1.3 per cent.
The EU has adopted a regulation allowing for temporary full trade liberalisation and the suspension of trade defence measures on June 4 2022, resulting in a sharp increase in EU imports from Ukraine for several agricultural products.
This caused distortions in markets for these products in countries neighbouring Ukraine, leading to the imposition of temporary restrictive measures on a series of Ukrainian foodstuff exports on May 2 2023.
These measures ended on September 15 2023 while at the same time Ukraine was to put in place effective measures to control the export of these products[
In absolute terms in value, the largest product groups exported to Ukraine in 2022 were fuels, electrical machinery, vehicles, machinery and pharmaceutical products, Eurostat said.
(Photo: Ken Munyard/ freeimages.com)
