Belarus shipped 4.1 million tonnes of export cargo through Russian ports in January–March. The figure was presented at a meeting of the high-level group of the Union Council of Ministers by Lukashenka’s Chief of Staff Dzmitry Krutoi.
According to him, cargo transportation is currently carried out through 13 Russian ports. In the future, routes involving more distant Russian regions will also be explored.
Notably, Transport and Communications Minister Aliaksei Liakhnovich recently said in an interview with Belarusian television that shipments through Russian ports increased by 11% in the first quarter. However, he did not provide the absolute cargo handling volume. In addition, according to Liakhnovich, exports are routed through nine ports, mainly through the ports of St. Petersburg.
Krutoi said today that trade in goods and services between Belarus and Russia amounted to $62 billion last year, an increase of 6.2%. In the first quarter of this year, according to him, turnover increased by 13.5%, and Krutoi expects the figure to reach $70 billion by the end of the year.
“This year we are completing the three-year cycle of implementing the main directions of the Treaty on the Establishment of the Union State for 2024–2026. We still have intensive work ahead by the end of the year, as currently just over half of the planned 310 measures have been completed,” he said, as reported by BelTA.
Krutoi also highlighted the issue of protecting the joint market.
“This means systematic joint preventive work when introducing new regulatory mechanisms, with careful analysis of the consequences of their implementation, primarily for the volume of mutual trade. We expect that the launch of the Union State’s Committee for Standardisation and Quality will become an additional filter for incoming goods and help prevent barriers in mutual trade and trade with third countries,” he added.
The discussion also touched on supplies of meat and dairy products.
“It is important to continue this productive interagency dialogue that has developed between our sectoral authorities and regulators regarding the implementation of these forecast balances, combating counterfeit products and developing a strategy for the future development of the Union’s agricultural sector. I believe that this year we should move towards creating a conceptual non-framework document in the field of agricultural policy,” he said.
