The MP from the Opposition Bloc, Serhiy Lvochkin demands to urgently take comprehensive measures aimed at realizing the export potential of domestic producers. He wrote about this in his inquiry of deputy addressed to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman.

“I demand to take immediate and systematic measures aimed at realizing the export potential of domestic producers,” the inquiry says.

Serhiy Lovochkin underlined that according to the results of  2017 in the sphere of foreign trade of Ukraine negative tendencies were preserved, first of all – the outstripping growth in imports, insufficient diversification of markets, raw material of Ukrainian exports.

According to him, this is primarily due to the ineffective economic policy of the authorities concerning stimulation of export and development of industry.

“According to the State Statistics Service, the growth of foreign trade in goods in 2017 has been achieved, mainly due to the low base of comparison, and their level is still significantly lower than the pre-crisis indicator. In particular, last year’s exports in dollar terms increased by only 19% and amounted to less than 70% of 2013,” the MP noted.

Serhiy Lovochkin added that the weighty factor that caused export growth was the positive nature of the foreign trade situation, but its volatility does not guarantee the preservation of favorable conditions for Ukrainian exports this year. He emphasized that imports grew at a faster pace - by 26.4%, resulting in a negative foreign trade surplus of more than 119%, amounting to - $ 6.3 billion against - $ 2.9 billion in the previous year.

“Despite the functioning of the free trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union, the country has virtually failed to achieve significant geographical diversification of Ukrainian foreign trade. Exports of Ukrainian products to the EU countries have increased by only 5.8% over the last four years, while the volume of trade in domestic goods with CIS countries has decreased by more than 68%,” the politician said.

The MP stressed that the systematic nature of the negative tendencies in the foreign economic sphere was confirmed by the fact that last year the reduction of Ukrainian exports continued in most strategically important geographical areas: its volume in Brazil fell by 54%, Thailand - by almost 40%, South Korea - by 25,4%, Iran - by 21.6%, New Zealand - by 20.2%, Egypt - by 19.2%, Saudi Arabia - by almost 13%, France - by 7.6%, Kazakhstan - by 7% , Mexico – by 5.3%. “Every second of the above-mentioned countries is included in the G-20 group of the leading economies of the world, and the loss of these markets significantly limits the opportunities for the growth of domestic exports,” Serhiy Lovochkin stressed.

In addition, last year there was a deterioration in the quality of the commodity structure of foreign trade. “As a result of the continued destruction of domestic industry, our exports are becoming more primitive - two thirds of its last year’s volume was raw materials and goods with a low added value: vegetable products (21.3%), ferrous metals (20%), fats and oils (10, 6%), "the opposition said.

He cited an example that Ukrainian aircraft manufacturers managed to produce and put out only one plane last year. The activity of domestic ships is actually reduced to ship repair, and the growth of production in automotive industry is noticeable only on the background of a practically zero base comparison of past years. As a result of the last year, the output of transport machine building, aircraft and shipbuilding was exported 2 times less than the export of wood and products from it.

“The noted negative tendencies in foreign economic activity lead to deterioration of the balance of payments, degradation of the technological potential of the domestic industry, stopping of enterprises and job cuts, wage arrears and worsening of the social security of our fellow citizens,” Serhiy Lovochkin noted.