Russian Trade Envoy to China Hopes Bilateral Trade to Revive in 2016

Bilateral trade between Russia and China is expected to grow this year after harsh decline by over 28 percent earlier, according to predictions of Russia’s trade envoy to China Alexei Gruzdev.

BEIJING (Sputnik) – Russia’s trade envoy to China told Sputnik he expected bilateral trade between the two neighbor nations to grow this year after it slid by over 28 percent amid falling China imports.

China’s total trade fell last year as the country’s economic growth slowed down to the lowest rate in over 25 years, prompting the national government to announce economic reforms.

"My feeling is that in 2016 we are in for a major adjustment to that sharp decline in bilateral trade volumes that we saw last year," Alexei Gruzdev said in Beijing.

He added that other trade partners of the world’s second-largest economy saw an even bigger decrease in trade with China. "In this sense, one might say we have come out on top," Gruzdev added.

Last year, China significantly increased imports of Russian ferrous and nonferrous metal products and equipment. Russian companies also sought to export agricultural products to China, including food.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited China in 2014, said the countries aimed to boost bilateral trade to an annual 200 billion dollars by 2020. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said in January 2016 that the goal was probably too ambitious, although he added the partners would not stop trying.