The association of Ukraine with the EU turned out to be a failure and disastrous for the Ukrainian economy - over the past two years, exports from Ukraine to EU countries have decreased by 20%.
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Opposition Bloc deputy Alexander Vilkul stated this on the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada.
According to him, after signing the Association Agreement with the EU, Ukraine began to sell its goods for $4 billion less.
“The agreement that our government signed on a free trade area with the European Union did not lead to an increase in exports. For three years now, we have been told that we are already Europeans, but, nevertheless, we began to supply 20% less goods to Europe. For many, this figure is a shock, but in 2013, Ukraine supplied goods worth 17,1 billion to the European Union. US dollars, and in 2016 this amount was only 13,5 billion. We supply 21% less to the European Union after the signing of the Association Agreement,” Vilkul said.
However, official Ukrainian statistics are more optimistic. Thus, according to the State Statistics Service, in January-May 2016, Ukrainian exports to the EU increased by 4,5% compared to the corresponding period last year and amounted to almost 40% of the country’s total exports. During the same period, imports from EU countries increased by 3,3%, accounting for 44,6% of total imports.