he trade structure of Ukrainian exports evokes sad thoughts that it is very hard to cure the Ukrainian economy's "distorted" genetic code dating back from Soviet times. As is shown in chart two, the leading export positions are held by metallurgical products (44 per cent) and by mineral and chemical products (22 per cent), while mechanical engineering makes up as little as 12 per cent.

oreover, over 1995-99 the structure of goods exports notably worsened: the proportion of metallurgical products increased by 8 per cent, whereas that of mechanical engineering dropped by 7 per cent. Comparison with our central and eastern European neighbours is apparently not to our credit. First, Ukraine's exports of raw materials and products with low value added are 300 to 800 per cent higher than a similar indicator for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Second, the exports of mechanical-engineering products are 50 to 80 per cent lower from Ukraine than from central Europe, although back in 1995 the portion of machine-building products was 19 per cent in the export pattern for Ukraine, 18.8 per cent for Slovakia and 21.1 per cent for Poland. In essence, the country's economic tissues are developing an utterly dangerous "raw-material necrosis". Ukraine is gradually securing for itself a strategically unfavourable pattern of goods export, which is proved by analysis of basic commodity items.