The article highlights contradictory tendencies and analyzes the diverse causes of changes that took place in the foreign economic activity of the agrarian sector of Ukraine. The main ones are: the curtailment of trade relations with the Russian Federation, the reduction of world prices for agricultural products, the incompleteness of the formation and introduction of a model of food safety and animal feed safety in the agricultural sector and enterprises in the agrarian sector operating in the European Union, etc. According to the results of the analysis of statistical data in the field of foreign economic activity of Ukraine for 2011-2016, it was made an important conclusion that the decrease in exports of agricultural products to Russia is not yet compensated by its increase to other countries of the world. In this connection, the necessity of active exit of agricultural enterprises into new food markets, as well as strengthening of their own positions in relations with traditional trading partners in the countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, was substantiated. It was established that the indicator of preparedness of business entities for conducting export activities is the availability of a food safety system that will be equivalent to the European model of food and feed safety.

The situation with the formation of the national technical regulation system has been analyzed in all major components: legislative and normative base, national standards, technical regulations, accreditation of conformity assessment bodies and conformity assessment procedures, state market supervision of regulatory compliance. For each of the components, the real status is highlighted and the scope of work that needs to be performed in the near future is outlined in order to ensure the completion of the formation of a modern system of technical regulation. Its integral indicator is the requirement – the system of technical regulation of Ukraine should be equivalent to the basic model of technical regulation that has been introduced and has been successfully operating in the European Union for more than a decade.

The key component of the food safety system at enterprises is the implementation of the HACCP, as well as adherence to additional requirements on capacities specializing in the production of animal products. The real state of HACCP implementation at food industry enterprises, as well as constantly operating procedures based on the principles of HACCP, are analyzed on the capacities with insignificant risk of production activity in accordance with the established terms of the terms of implementation of these provisions and in accordance with product specialization and capacity sizes. The feasibility of carrying out an audit of small capacities of the food industry and primary production enterprises engaged in the cultivation of products of animal origin, in compliance with the minimum requirements of the basic programs is substantiated. This is necessary for an objective assessment of the state of preparedness for the implementation of the HACCP or a simplified approach by end-product producers, as well as the minimum requirements of the program-preconditions in farms producing animal products. It is shown that sanitary and phytosanitary steps implemented at enterprises and agricultural enterprises are fully in line with European requirements. This is a guarantee that the products manufactured by them, in terms of safety and quality, fully comply with the regulatory requirements that are in force and are observed in the European Union.

The most difficult aspect in trade relations is the problem of crossing the borders with products imported by the importing country. Its solution was secured in 1990-2000 in this way: from the elimination of barriers to the free movement of goods in the single market and the application of the principle of mutual recognition of products to ensure that the market receives only safe and relevant Harmonized Union Product Law. The key role in this is played by the conformity assessment bodies of the EU Member States and the WTO. Therefore, the European Accreditation Association (EA) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) were established, whose member states recognized the national accreditation systems of conformity assessment bodies (CAB) equivalent to each other. In 2010, the accreditation system of CAB the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine (NAAU) was recognized by EA and ILAC as equivalent. This created the necessary preconditions for the introduction of mechanisms for mutual recognition of safety and quality certificates, certificates and protocols of tests conducted, which simplified the crossing of borders with products manufactured in Ukraine. Today, about 300 Ukrainian enterprises, including more than 100 producers of animal food products, have the right to export products to the EU member states and, accordingly, the WTO. Consequently, the expansion of the domestic exporters of food products will be accompanied by a real increase in the volume of its exports.

Key words: agrarian sector, enterprises and economy, technical regulation, foreign economic activity, food safety.