The Determinants Of Competitiveness Of Ukrainian International Trade Products

Recently the Ukrainian economy has undergone significant changes.Especially noticeable changes in the field of trade.These changes have both positive and negative effects.At present,Ukrainian trade flows are mainly divided between the countries of the European Union and the countries of the Single Economic Space.This study aims to analyze Ukraine's products that have a competitive advantage in the world market.It has been determined that products such as: vegetable oils and fat;maize unmilled;iron and steel;wheat and meslin are part of trade groups that have uplifted Ukraine's global footprint and competitiveness over recent years.We used tools such as Balassa index of the Revealed Comparative Advantage,Galtonian regression and OLS model to understand and measure Ukraine's competitiveness in the world.The results of the study suggest,that Ukrainian trade specialization is widening.The results further revealed that Ukraine has positive,but very small FDI effect.This gives an understanding that technology transfer is occurring in Ukraine but at a slow pace.Further,the GDP indicator is negative.This means that an increase in the competitiveness of the product group 672(iron and steel)automatically reduces the level of GDP by 0.001%.Consequently,if countries are interested in increasing their GDP,they should move from this production group to another.In an attempt to identify the factors influencing competitiveness,we follow Neo-Schumpetare approach.Which suggests that competitiveness,especially at the macro level is determined by the process of innovation and the acquisition of new technologies.Thus the hypothesis is checked that the competitiveness of Ukrainian products depends and is affected by FDI and use of imported products in the production process.The results are compared with the research results for Russia and Germany.The findings of the paper propose that Ukraine should alleviate production from certain trade groups(production of raw materials: iron and steel)and start focusing production on trade groups(production of finished products: mechanical engineering)that will help increase GDP.