Opportunities and threats of WTO membership of Ukraine in foreign trade of high-technology products under conditions of co-operation with EU countries and Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia

The article considers the problem of consequences of membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for Ukraine in foreign trade of high-technology products under conditions of co-operation with EU countries and the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia (CU). The article shows that after Ukraine joined WTO there were some rather significant reductions of tariff rates for Ukrainian products and liberalisation of access to the world markets, at the same time the internal Ukrainian market became more open for imported products. The article studies specific features and changes in the high-technology products market after Ukraine joined WTO. It analyses dynamics of volumes and specific weight of the world export-import of high-technology products and the structure of the world export and import of high technology products, including by individual countries and groups. The article makes a conclusion about a weak high-technology component of the Ukrainian export. It studies the structure of export of high-technology products of EU, CU and Ukraine. It shows that in order to develop the high-technology products market Ukraine needs to develop foreign trade with EU countries and also to continue co-operation with CU countries, in particular, with Russia. The article shows that the aerospace industry products takes the biggest specific weight in the export of high-technology products of Ukraine. It considers prospects of development of civil aircraft production in the world and Ukraine under the modern conditions. It analyses strengths and weaknesses of the aircraft construction industry and also threats and opportunities for aircraft construction of Ukraine due to external environment influence. The article shows that Ukraine cannot keep national aircraft building on its own, that is why it is necessary to develop close co-operation both with Russian enterprises and with the countries of the Western Europe. It offers recommendations on preservation of production potential of the aircraft construction industry of Ukraine. The final conclusion of the study is the following: despite the world financial and economic crisis, diversification and change of the Ukrainian export structure is going on since Ukraine joined WTO, which not only facilitates reduction of dependence of the national economy on individual geographical markets, but also predetermines the necessity to protect interests of the national producers by the Ukrainian government in new markets.