Empirical Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Free Trade Area between the EU and Ukraine for the Agricultural Market

The article presents the evaluation of the effectiveness of a deep and comprehensive free trade area between Ukraine and the European Union for the agro-food products. The dynamics of comparative advantages of agro-food products of Ukraine in the context of separate groups with the use of the modified Balassa index is analyzed. It has been established that the improvement of competitive positions after the introduction of the free trade area is observed in the most types of products among those with identified comparative advantages on the European market. The positive influence of the progress within trade and economic cooperation between Ukraine and the EU on the competitive position of agro-food products at the European market is substantiated.