In January-November 2013 the mutual trade of the Customs Union member states declined by 5.9% from the same period of last year, the foreign trade inched down by 0.7%, BelTA learned from the press service of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

In January-November 2013 the foreign trade of the Customs Union member states with third countries amounted to $844.6 billion, down by 0.7% or $5.7 billion over the same period of last year.

Export to third countries came at $531.9 billion, import at $312.7 billion. In cost terms the volume of export was down by 1.7% or $9.2 billion. Import went up by 1.1% or $3.5 billion. In January-November 2013 the Customs Union had a foreign trade surplus as large as $219.2 billion, down from $231.9 billion in January- November 2012.

Without taking into account fuel and energy commodities the volume of export was down by 6.9% in cost terms, the volume of import went up by 1.6%, the Eurasian Economic Commission noted. In January-November 2013 Russia’s export to third countries rose by 0.6% to $443.1 billion, with import up by 0.3% to $267.1 billion. Russia had a foreign trade surplus of $176 billion. Belarus’ export to third countries went down by 33.8% to $17.9 billion, while import rose by 7.5% to $18.2 billion. Belarus had a deficit of $0.3 billion. Kazakhstan’s export dropped by 3.8% to $70.9 billion, import was up by 5% to $27.4 billion. The surplus for Kazakhstan made up $43.5 billion.

In January-November 2013 the mutual trade of the Customs Union member states totaled $58.2 billion, down 5.9% from January-November 2012. Belarus-Russia trade reached $35.96 billion, down 10.3%. Russia-Kazakhstan trade totaled $21.35 billion, up 2.3%. Belarus-Kazakhstan trade dropped by 0.6% down to $855.4 million.

Belarus-Russia trade accounted for 61.8% of the trade in the Customs Union, Russia-Kazakhstan trade for 36.7%, Belarus-Kazakhstan for 1.5%.

“The fall in the mutual trade was due to a considerable decrease in the delivery of Russian oil products to Belarus (after the shipments surged 1,7 times in January-November 2012 in comparison with January-November 2011). Without taking into account fuel and energy commodities the mutual trade of the Customs Union member states rose by 0.7% in comparison with January-November 2012,” said the press service of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

BelTA