US economic cooperation with Eurasian Economic Union grows despite sanctions - official

WASHINGTON, March 20. /TASS/. Trade and economic cooperation between the United States and the Eurasian Economic Union has grown despite Washington’s sanctions rhetoric, Assistant Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Fedor Chernitsyn said. "We have the same plans on cooperation with the US like with the rest of the world. We are open for dialogue and we want to cooperate with everyone because this is interesting for us. US companies are showing interest but it is abated at the level of political differences between one of the members of our Eurasian Union, the Russian Federation, and the US government. Unfortunately, cold political climate mars brilliant prospects of our economic cooperation, but we believe that this will change at some moment," the official told the annual conference on the development of business contacts with EAEU at the Russian Cultural Center in Washington. "Despite the sanctions rhetoric, our trade and economic cooperation with the United States has even grown. Starting from the moment when Eurasian integration processes were launched in 2015, by today the trade volume between the EAEU and the US has risen nearly by 20%, although the US accounts for just 4% of the entire trade turnover with the EAEU countries. Trade turnover between the EAEU and the US was to the tune of $28.3 bln in 2018 and in 2015 it reached $23.6 bln, while investments grew 25%," Chernitsyn said. The Eurasian Economic Union is an international integration economic organization, which brings together Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Read more