Russia-China Trade Turnover Projected to Reach $185-190Bln in 2022
© Sputnik / Sergey Guneev
/ Subscribe
BEIJING (Sputnik) - The volume of bilateral trade between Russia and China is expected to reach $185-190 billion by the end of this year, while Beijing's role as a trade partner continues to grow amid disruptions of old supply chains, Alexey Dakhnovsky, Russia's trade representative in China, said on Friday.
In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese President counterpart, Xi Jinping, set a goal to reach $200 billion in bilateral trade by 2024, after the previous threshold of $100 billion was attained in 2018.
"I believe that this year we will reach $185-190 billion, and next year it could be more. I am sure that the goal set by the leaders of the two countries will be achieved despite this, simply because we are neighbors and will develop bilateral trade and economic cooperation. Now that the old supply chains are destroyed, China's role as a trade partner is increasing," Dakhnovsky said.
According to him, trade volume between Russia and China is showing good results, growing by 27.2% in the first half of 2022. However, Russia has a significant trade surplus with China, in other words, exporting more than importing. This year, Russian export to the Asian partner grew by over 48%, while Chinese export rose by a little over 2%.
Dakhnovsky attributes this imbalance to soaring prices for energy and metals, which comprise the bulk of Russia's exports, adding that imports are likely to grow.
"Let's wait until the end of this year. I think we will see an expansion of the range of products imported from China. Even according to Chinese statistics over the five months, we see that there are new things that we need, for example, juice concentrates for the production of baby food in Russia, tobacco. What used to be bought in other countries is now imported from China," Dakhnovsky said.
More China-produced cars are to appear in Russia, the expert believes, noting that resellers expand the range of cars for sale and some automobile manufacturers, such as Great Wall, already have factories in the country.
Dakhnovsky was not optimistic about parallel importing hi-tech and branded goods from China, as the country has imposed strict legislation in response to widespread criticism of intellectual property infringement.
