Promotion of Ukraine’s export to China: priorities and institutional framework

Abstract

In the context of neo-protectionism and in terms of WTO membership, regulatory mechanisms for promoting the national producer and country’s external expansion require an institutional basis. This paper primarily aims to explore the resource and institutional component in promoting Ukraine’s exports to Chinese market and to identify the level of Ukraine’s export promotion system effectiveness based on combinatorial approach, which includes the calculation of quantitative indicators of foreign trade in the form of international production and marketing cooperation and estimation of qualitative parameters of export promotion effectiveness. The empirical findings indicate following: high dynamism of increasing mutual trade volume; enlargement of trade flows asymmetry caused by the negative trade balance of Ukrainian economy; limited list of commodity groups of Ukrainian exports in mutual trade with China with stable relative advantages; dominance of low-value-added commodities among export priority groups; absence of beneficial effect of such a factor as “long-term partnerships” in the mutual trade flow. The paper reveals that national export promotion system in Ukraine can be characterized by low efficiency and strong potential for growth. The authors emphasize the importance of intensifying the projects and mechanisms of financial and investment support for exporters with increasing the level of their innovative orientation. Prospects for further research in this area are as follows: the assessment of macroeconomic effects from the introduction of export promotion tools for the national economy of countries of origin of goods and importing countries; detection of anticompetitive risks in the implementation of selective support programs for exporters.

Keywords

• export promotion
• foreign trade
• international competitiveness
• international cooperation
• trade policy