In addition to the war, talk about Ukraine's foreign trade situation

　　China Business News Network Ukraine covers an area of about 600,000 square kilometers, with superior natural resources and environment, and a slightly larger population than Fujian Province. Ukraine has more than 80 kinds of rich minerals available for exploitation, of which iron, manganese, coal and other resources are abundant, but oil and gas resources are scarce and need to rely on imports.

　　Abundant resources provide Ukraine with the basic conditions for the development of international trade, enabling it to maintain a steady growth in trade. Between 2016 and 2019, Ukraine's foreign trade increased from $75.59 billion to $110.85 billion. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the volume of foreign trade in 2020 has declined, still reaching 102.90 billion US dollars. In the five years from 2016 to 2020, Ukraine's imports increased from $39.25 billion to $53.67 billion and exports increased from $36.34 billion to $49.23 billion. It can be seen that in recent years, Ukraine's international trade has been basically balanced, and the growth rate of imports is slightly higher than that of exports. However, compared with other countries and regions in the world, Ukraine's trade volume ranks very high. In 2020, Ukraine ranked 47th in the world for exports after Israel and 48th for imports after Nigeria.

　　In terms of trading partners, Ukraine has close trade relations with its geographically neighbouring countries. As a country in eastern Europe, Ukraine is located on the northern shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and has long-term stable trade ties and international division of labor with European countries. Ukraine is bordered by Belarus to the north, Russia to the northeast, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, and Romania and Moldova to the south, and land, sea and land, pipelines and air transport routes have supported the development of its international trade. However, the easy trade routes make Ukraine not dependent on a few trading partners, and its trade network is spread across the globe. In 2020, Ukraine had 201 export destinations and 215 import sources. Extensive trade links have thus made Ukraine an important player in global trade.

　　International trade reflects the difference between the resource factor endowments of countries and the relationship between international competitiveness, and is also determined by their market needs. According to the trade volume, the top five import sources of Ukraine in 2020 are China, Germany, Russia, Poland and the United States, with imports ranging from 8.25 billion US dollars to 2.95 billion US dollars, accounting for 15.4%, 9.9%, 8.5%, 7.6% and 5.5% of Ukraine's imports in that year, respectively, and these countries have an advantage in the fields of global manufactured goods, consumer goods and energy. On the list of import sources, Japan, which is far away from Ukraine and ranks 11th in terms of sources, has exported more than $1 billion ($1.08 billion) to Ukraine. In that year, the top five Export Destinations of Ukraine were China, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Germany, and the country distribution and the distribution of Ukrainian import sources have certain similarities, which also reflects the mutually beneficial relationship of international trade to a certain extent. Ukraine's exports to these five countries are distributed between US$7.12 billion and US$2.07 billion, accounting for 14.5%, 6.7%, 5.5%, 4.9% and 4.2% of its exports in the current year, respectively. In addition, Ukraine has a number of significant trading partners, and its exports to Romania, ranked 13th, are worth more than $1 billion to $1.08 billion.

　　Among Ukraine's exports, exports of more than $100 million in 2020 cover 49 categories of customs HS two-digit codes, accounting for half of all categories. Among them, there are 9 categories of exports with more than 1 billion US dollars, namely cereals (9.42 billion US dollars), steel (7.69 billion US dollars), animal and vegetable oils (5.76 billion US dollars), ores (4.42 billion US dollars), electronic machinery (2.57 billion US dollars), machinery and equipment (1.92 billion US dollars), oil crops (1.84 billion US dollars), Feed (US$ 1.58 billion) and wood and wood products (US$ 1.41 billion), together these nine categories account for nearly three-quarters (74.4%) of total goods exported to Ukraine. Exports of the top three categories of goods accounted for more than 10% of Ukraine's total exports, at 19.1%, 15.6% and 11.7% respectively. It can be found that Ukraine has a wide range of advantages in international trade and also reaps development benefits through exports.

　　Exports reflect both a country's or region's ability to use its strengths to reap trade benefits, and on the other hand, its contribution to international market demand, with further focus on Ukraine's main export commodities revealing more details. From the perspective of the export destinations of the three major categories of commodities, the characteristics of their geographical distribution are not the same. As Ukraine's highest exported cereal, its exports in 2020 went to 115 countries or regions. Of cereal exports, 19.7 percent ($1.86 billion) went to China, 11.9 percent ($1.12 billion) to Egypt, and 5.0 percent or more of grain to Indonesia, Spain and the Netherlands. In recent years, global food trade has become an important trade type in which countries, including land, water, labor and other resource advantages, have been adjusted to each other, and have played an important role in reducing hunger and meeting consumer demand. As an important exporter of global cereals, Ukraine's export volume in 2020 accounted for 7.9% of the total global exports, which has a considerable impact on the supply and demand relationship and prices in the global cereal market. In contrast, Ukraine's export volume ranks 2nd and 3rd in terms of global market share of goods relatively small. In 2020, global steel exports totaled US$317.06 billion, animal and vegetable oil exports totaled US$98.46 billion, and Ukraine's global exports accounted for 2.4% and 5.9% respectively. Among them, the top three destinations for exports of Ukrainian steel products are Italy (12.1%), Turkey (12.1%) and China (7.9%); the top three exports of animal and vegetable oils are India (25.1%), China (19.3%) and the Netherlands (9.2%).

　　In contrast, the distribution of Ukrainian imports is more diversified. There are 65 broad categories of goods imported in 2020 with more than $100 million. Commodities imported more than US$1 billion include mineral fuels (US$7.43 billion), machinery and equipment (US$6.07 billion), transportation (US$5.50 billion), electronic machinery (US$5.45 billion), pharmaceuticals (US$2.52 billion), plastic products (US$2.49 billion), chemicals (US$1.33 billion), optical equipment (US$1.25 billion) and steel products (US$1.04 billion), which together account for 61.6% of Ukraine's total imports. Among them, the imports of the first four categories of goods accounted for more than 10%, accounting for 13.8%, 11.3%, 10.2% and 10.1% of Ukraine's total imports that year. Compared with the distribution of Ukrainian export goods, the distribution of imports is less concentrated. The main commodity category for imports is fossil fuels, indicating Ukraine's high external dependence on industrial production and the energy needed for the livelihood of its inhabitants. Imports and exports are two inseparable aspects of international trade, and the increase or decrease in imports often leads to changes in exports and vice versa. In today's highly developed economic and trade globalization, the impact of trade shocks on global trade networks not only has a great impact, but also the transmission speed is getting faster and faster.

　　(Zhou Mi, the author is a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce)