Russian trade turnover breaks pre-Covid high

The flow of goods has shifted to the east and south, the head of Russia’s customs service has said

Russia saw its trade turnover exceed pre-pandemic levels in the first six months of this year, according to the country’s customs authority.

The figure for January-June was 3% higher than the same period of 2019, Ruslan Davydov, the acting head of the Federal Customs Service (FCS), said on Wednesday.

During a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Davydov said a number of measures undertaken by the FCS had helped to increase trade. These included a streamlining of customs clearance processes, the removal of customs duties on certain goods, and an increased duty-free threshold for goods bought online.

According to Davydov, Russia has seen a global shift in its trade to the east and to the south. In response to the change in the flow of goods, the country’s customs service has increased staffing numbers, and switched some checkpoints to a 24/7 work schedule. The number of checks has also been reduced and new technologies have been employed to streamline monitoring of large cargoes.

Since the introduction of Western sanctions on Russia over its military operation in Ukraine, Moscow has turned to its partners in the BRICS bloc of developing nations to compensate for the loss of a large share of the EU market.

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The trade turnover between Russia and China jumped by more than 40% to reach $114.5 billion in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2022, according to Chinese customs figures released last week.

The trade turnover between Russia and India also increased almost fourfold to nearly $22 billion between January and April this year, compared to the same period last year, RIA Novosti reported in June, citing calculations based on data from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Ruslan Davydov said in June that China and India, together with Türkiye and Azerbaijan, had replaced the EU in Russia’s foreign trade.

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