Eurostat reports increases in EU imports from, exports to, Ukraine
In the second quarter of 2024, both EU imports from Ukraine (+four per cent ) and EU exports to Ukraine (+6.5 per cent ) increased, European Union statistics agency said on August 30.
Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, imports and exports increased by 7.6 per cent and 9.7 per cent, respectively, Eurostat said.
Imports peaked in the fourth quarter of 2022, while exports peaked in the second quarter of 2024. The EU trade surplus with Ukraine peaked in the fourth quarter of 2023 at 4.7 billion euro.
looking at the changes in Ukraine’s shares in extra-EU trade, there was little variation, Eurostat said.
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 the second quarter of 2024, EU imports of sunflower oil from Ukraine, measured in volume, were 142 percentage points above the level of the second quarter of 2021.
Between the third quarter of 2023 and the second quarter of 2024, compared with the same period 2 years earlier, Ukraine’s share in the extra-EU imports of sunflower oil increased from 78 per cent to 92 per cent.
In the second quarter of 2024, EU imports of maize from Ukraine, measured in volume, were 65 pp above the level of the second quarter of 2021.
In the first two quarters of 2024, EU imports of rape or colza seeds from Ukraine, measured in value and volume, were much higher than in the first two quarters of 2021
In the second quarter of 2024, EU imports of wood from Ukraine, measured in volume, increased by 121 pp compared with the level of the second quarter of 2021.
In the second quarter of 2024, EU imports of iron and steel from Ukraine, measured in volume, increased by 95 pp compared with the level of the second quarter of 2021.
EU imports of soya bean oil In the second quarter of 2024, EU imports of soya bean oil from Ukraine, measured in volume, were 109 pp above the level of the second quarter of 2021, Eurostat said.
(Photo: Sunyiming, via Wikimedia Commons)
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