Ukraine’s Dependence

The country I chose to analyze from the UN Comtrade Data is Ukraine.  Ukraine is particularly fascinating to me in ways that it is my native country and it has also experienced various economic turmoil throughout its history, leading to one of its biggest revolution in 2013.  Over the years, Ukraine has attempted to gain its economic and political freedom yet, the ties with Russia for their oil and other imported supplies has remained them constrained.  The country is seeded between Russian and Poland.  It is one of the largest countries in Europe and has tremendous access to various sea ports. 

According to the UN Comtrade data, Ukraine’s biggest export is iron and steel with 95 billion dollars.  While goods such as mineral fuels, oils, distillation products are imported into the country at 133 billion dollars (“UN Comtrade Demo”).  This makes sense due to the country’s heavy dependence on oil from countries like Russia to heat the homes of their civilians and provide gas.  In a Stratfor Global Intelligence Study, Ukraine's energy is claimed as a sector that is closely tied to Russia.  A Russian firm, owns stakes in eight of Ukraine's 27 regional energy supplier companies, including power distributors in the Odessa and Kiev regions. Electricity shortages resulting from the loss of some of Ukraine's coal resources have led the country to begin importing electricity from Russia (“Ukraine's Economy Needs Russia”).

The second product that is significantly imported at 39 billion dollars is nuclear reactors, boilers, and machinery.  Viewing the import v. export data for Ukraine, I noticed that their economy continues to experience economic dependence and turmoil considering that most of their products are being imported versus exported.  Ukraine declared its independence from the Russian Federation in 1990s.  Therefore, Ukraine is relatively new at developing a strong economy.  According to the Top Trading Partners on the UN Comtrade data link, Ukraine’s largest export value partner is Russia at 90 billion dollars.  While other key players to Ukraine’s export trading consist of Turkey at 21 billion dollars and Italy at 14 billion dollars (“UN Comtrade Demo”).  With Russian firms controlling about 30 percent of Ukraine's regional power distribution companies and beginning to export electricity to the country, the economic power is positioned to continue playing a role in Ukraine's energy sector (“Ukraine's Economy Needs Russia”).  Russia, being the largest export provider for Ukraine reinforces the concept of co-dependency. Their economic ties also can explain a lot about the political state of the two countries and why Ukraine has been experiencing various revolutions.   

Works Cited

“Ukraine's Economy Needs Russia.” Stratfor. Web. 11 Dec. 2015. <https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/ukraines-economy-needs-russia>.

“UN Comtrade Demo | SAS® Visual Analytics.” UN Comtrade Demo | SAS® Visual Analytics. Web. 11 Dec. 2015. <http://www.sas.com/software/visual-analytics/demos/un-comtrade-basic.html>.