Belarus Ambassador: the decrease in the volume of mutual trade with Armenia is influenced by "gifts" from outside

ArmInfo. Armenia and Belarus are  at trade-economy cooperation stage, which is being implemented  according to a wide range of goods and services. "We do not amend  bilateral claims and barriers", Igor Nazaruk, Ambassador  Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to  Armenia told ArmInfo's reporter.

However, the Belarusian Ambassador expressed concern about the drop  of mutual trade. According to him, external factors influenced the  decrease in volumes. "First of all, this is the world economic  recession, change in prices for basic energy carriers - oil, the  price of gas attached to it. Relatively speaking, these problems were  "presented" to us from outside, "Nazaruk said.

He noted that Belarusian products, in particular tractor machinery,  tire products, fiber, which is used in telecommunications, have a  high demand in Armenia. However, both the Armenian and Belarusian  sides do not fully use the available opportunities, the Ambassador  added. In this context, Nazaruk referred to the work of the ECE,  noting that as a supranational body the Eurasian Commission helps to  promote and strengthen economic potentials within the framework of a  unified industrial policy and a number of other issues that fall  within the competence of the ECE. At the same time, the bottleneck in  the cooperation with Armenia, the Ambassador of Belarus noted the  complicated transport interaction due to objective geographical  reasons. In this regard, I. Nazaruk stressed: "I am sure that these  problems will be resolved in the near future, after the conclusion of  the relevant Belarusian-Armenian agreement in this area."

According to Armenian National Statistics Service, in Jan-March 2017,  the export of Armenian production to Belarus decreased for 22.5% till  $961 thousand, with import growth by 25.6% to $5.8mln, which resulted  foreign trade turnover extent for the reported period to amount $6.7  mln.