Economist assesses prospects for trade between Russia and Belarus

Prospects for trade between Belarus and Russia are quite high, because there is a well-tested mechanism of interaction and complementarity of the economies of the countries. This was told to "Izvestia" on December 3 by Alexander Daniltsev, director of the Trade Policy Institute of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Earlier in the day, chairman of the commission of the parliamentary assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia on international affairs Sergei Rachkov said that the trade turnover between Belarus and Russia has grown significantly recently and exceeded $50 billion.

"If we talk about the EAEU countries, here between Russia and Belarus is the biggest trade and very important. Belarus is a consumer of a very large volume of Russian not only raw materials, but also all sorts of components, parts for its production facilities for the assembly and final manufacture of machinery, quite complex various products," said Daniltsev.

According to him, at the same time a large enough volume of finished products comes from Belarus to Russia, and now, under the sanctions, it is also substitute products, including semi-finished products, components, parts, which stopped coming, for example, from Europe. There are quite a lot of such production facilities in this country, and they are gradually being set up, the expert explained.

Earlier, in late October, the Kremlin website reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, following an extended meeting of the State Council Presidium in September, instructed the Russian government and the Russian Export Center to develop and approve the "Made in Russia" program by the end of the year. This program is aimed at promoting Russian goods abroad.