National Statistical Committee       of the Republic of Belarus

External trade with Customs Union
and Common Economic Space countries

The volume of the trade in goods with the Customs Union member countries and countries of the Common Economic Space (hereinafter referred to as the CU and the CES member countries) in January-March 2013 was USD 9 751,9  million, of which USD 3 996,8 million accounted for exports and USD 5 755,1 million accounted for imports. Compared to January-March 2012, the value of exports (calculated at current prices) increased by 3,4%, or by USD 130,9 million, the value of imports decreased by 23,6%, or by USD 1 778,1 million.

Data on foreign trade in goods with the CU and the CES member countries for 2012-2013 are given in the table below:

(USD million)

Changes in volumes of foreign trade, exports and imports of goods with the CU and the CES member countries are reflected below:

(in percent)

In January-March 2013 the balance of foreign trade in goods was negative totalling USD 1 758,3 million. For the corresponding period of the previous year negative balance was USD 3 667,3 million.

Data characterising the volumes of exports and imports in breakdown by the CU and the CES member countries are shown in the table:

Foreign trade with Russian Federation. The Russian Federation has a share of more than 96,1% in the value of exports and 99,7% in the value of imports with the CU and the CES member countries. The volume of foreign trade with Russia in January-March 2013 was USD 9 576,9 million, of which USD – 3 841,5 million accounted for exports and USD 5 735,4 million accounted for imports. As compared with January-March 2012 the value of exports (calculated at current prices) increased by 4,4%, or by USD 162,4 million, while the value of imports decreased by 23,6%, or by USD 1 768 million.

Negative balance of foreign trade transactions of the Republic of Belarus with the Russian Federation decreased from USD 3 824,3 million in January-March 2012 г. to USD 1 893,9 million in January-March 2013.

The major exports commodities to the Russian Federation are milk and cream concentrated, non-concentrated and in powder (in January-March 2013 the deliveries amounted to USD 225,4 million), oil products (USD 202,8 million), tractors and tractor trucks (USD 195,2 million), trucks (USD 164,5 million), beef (USD 160,3 million), cheese and curd (USD 143,7 million), ferrous metals (USD 99,1 million), furniture including medical (USD 90,6 million), agricultural machinery (USD 89,2 million), tyres (USD 83,7 million), sugar (USD 70,5 million), plastic containers (USD 64,2 million), butter (USD 63,5 million).

The major imports commodities from the Russian Federation are oil including gas condensate (the value of imports was USD 2 259,6 million), natural gas (USD 1 022 million), ferrous metals (USD 381,3 million), internal combustion engines (USD 68,3 million), ferrous metal pipes (USD 60,1 million), electricity (USD 57 million), synthetical rubber (USD 42,6 million), TV sets, monitors and projectors (USD 38,2 million), copper wire (USD 33,5 million), natural calcium phosphate (USD 29 million), insulated wires, cables (USD 28,1 million).

Foreign trade with Kazakhstan. As compared with January-March 2012, in January-March 2013 the exports decreased by 16,9%, while the imports decreased by 34%. The value of exports in January-March 2013 was USD 155,3 million, the value of imports was USD 19,7 million.

The balance of foreign trade in goods with Kazakhstan was positive totalling USD 135,6 million as compared with USD 157 million in January-March 2012.

The commodity composition of exports to Kazakhstan is prevailed by tyres (in January-March 2013 the deliveries amounted to USD 16,2 million), tractors and tractor trucks (USD 13,7 million), furniture including medical (USD 12 million), sugar (USD 8,9 million), agricultural machinery (USD 8,8 million), beef (USD 8,6 million), trucks (USD 6,3 million), milk and cream concentrated, non-concentrated and in powder (USD 5,6 million), butter (USD 4,4 million), medicaments (USD 4,1 million).

The major imports commodities from Kazakhstan include ferrous metals (USD 6,4 million), unwrought aluminium (USD 3,6 million), trucks (USD 2 million), wheat (USD 1,7 million).