Estimates of Trade Dependence of Ukraine: An Indicator of Effectiveness of its Economic Structure and Foreign Economic Activities

Abstract

The approach to study the significance of trade relations between countries by analyzing economic vulnerability, economic sensitivity, symmetry and asymmetry of the established economic links is proposed in this article. This approach is adapted to analysis of the trade dependence of Ukraine. The estimated interdependence ratios for Ukraine and its largest trade partners – EU, Russian Federation, post-soviet countries, China, the U.S., and razil and India as emerging economies – are compared to the respective ratios of Ukraine’s dependence on these countries’ markets. The analyzed dynamics of the Ukrainian GDP dependence on the Ukraine’s trade partners shows the growing relative weight of the countries that had not played a substantial role in the foreign trade of Ukraine. The proposed approach for estimating the quality of the established trade relations is supposed to contribute to the radical transformation of Ukraine’s foreign trade.