Share of US in Russia's Foreign Trade Not Exceeded 2% in 2022: Russia's Customs Service

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The share of the United States in Russia's foreign trade in 2022 was less than 2%, while turnover between the countries more than halved, Russian Federal Customs Service First Deputy Head Ruslan Davydov has said in an interview with Sputnik.

"There has been more than a twofold decrease [in Russia's trade in 2022] with the US. Their share in our foreign trade is now less than 2%," Davydov said.

The official added that there was also a significant decrease in turnover with the European Union.

"The turnover with some EU countries has dropped by some 50%: we had about 3,000 trucks from Europe a day, and now we have only about 1,500, including the flow through the Belarusian border," he said.

There are large traffic jams of trucks, especially on the Belarusian border, because a significant flow of imports to Russia goes through Belarus, he said.

"There are even more traffic jams at the Belarusian border than at hours. We talked to our colleagues from Belarus - it turned out that it is caused by issues in the work of the Poles and the Balts," Davydov said, adding that Russian border checkpoints "are ready to let in 400 trucks a day, and they only let in 200, at best 250."

"Now the queue is about 200-300 trucks. We can let more in, but they do not do so," he said.

In the meantime, Davydov said that turnover with "friendly countries" increased by 50% and by 200% with some of these states, adding that "this is a good growth within the EAEU [the Eurasian Economic Union]."