MONITORING OF AGRICULTURAL TRADE BETWEEN UKRAINE AND THE EU IN THE CONTEXT OF NEOLIBERAL INSTITUTIONALISM

Abstract

The article examines the monitoring of agricultural trade between Ukraine and the European Union through the theoretical framework of neoliberal institutionalism. The relevance of the research is determined by the intensification of bilateral agri-food trade, the transformation of trade routes after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the growing importance of the EU market for Ukrainian agricultural exports, and the increasing role of regulatory, institutional, and monitoring mechanisms in shaping trade relations. Particular attention is paid to the fact that the current system of agricultural trade between Ukraine and the EU cannot be adequately explained solely through market factors, price dynamics, or comparative advantages. Its functioning increasingly depends on formal institutions, common rules, monitoring procedures, sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, technical regulations, tariff-rate quotas, certification mechanisms, customs procedures, and instruments of regulatory approximation. From the perspective of neoliberal institutionalism, international institutions are considered not merely as external constraints on state behavior but as mechanisms that reduce uncertainty, transaction costs, and information asymmetry, while increasing transparency, predictability, and the stability of repeated interaction. In this context, monitoring agricultural trade is an important institutional instrument that enables the collection, processing, and evaluation of information on the dynamics and structure of trade flows and provides an empirical basis for policy coordination between Ukraine and the European Union. The study emphasizes that an effective monitoring system should include not only the value and volume of exports and imports, but also the commodity structure of trade, the level of export concentration, the share of higher value-added products, price dynamics, logistics constraints, market access conditions, the implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, and the level of Ukraine’s regulatory convergence with the EU acquis. Special attention is paid to non-tariff measures, including sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade. Regulatory convergence with the EU can be interpreted as an important manifestation of neoliberal institutionalism, since the gradual adaptation of Ukrainian producers and public institutions to European rules contributes to deeper market integration.