Intra-Eurasian Economic Union Trade Up 20% In Q1 2022

Kazakhstan announces significant trade jumps with China, is negotiating a free trade services agreement with Turkey.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Trade and Integration, Bakhyt Sultanov, has stated at the First EAEU Exporters Forum held in Nur-Sultan that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has boosted its production of non-primary products, thus increasing exports to third countries. Commenting on whether sanctions against Russia have affected Kazakhstan’s exports, Sultanov said “Sanctions didn’t affect the country’s exports, as mutual trade between the EAEU member states went up (over 20 percent) in the first quarter of 2022.

The EAEU sees a surge in non-commodity exports to third countries, whereas export growth rates were high both in 2021 and 2022. This is an essential outcome of the support for industries,” he stated. “There is a direct relationship between state support for production and the establishment of particular industries. The main task is to set up a system allowing to switch smoothly from production to the export”.

He said that the Kazakh Ministry of Trade and Integration has initiated a number of programs on export acceleration. “The purpose is to help develop 100 new exporters every year for five to six years. Currently, we have 500 active exporters. Through such programs and with the help of state bodies, we want to bring the number of active exporters to 1,000 by 2025.” he said.

Concerning Kazakh domestic exports, he stated that Kazakhstan and Turkey had agreed to commence talks on a Free Trade Agreement in the services sector, which could also include other EAEU members – Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

Kazakh-Turkey bilateral trade is up and reached US$1.5 billion in Q1 2022, an increase of 84.9% over the same period last year.

Kazakhstan, hosting the event, also revealed that bilateral trade between Kazakhstan and China in Q1 2022 reached US$3.1 billion, an increase of 21.9% than in the same period of 2021.

Kazakh exports of goods such as copper and copper cathodes, vegetable oils, titanium and products made from it, waste from processing cereals or legumes, cyclic hydrocarbons, and so on have all increased. Kazakh imports from China in Q1 amounted to US$2.1 billion, with the country importing China air conditioning units, computers, equipment for sorting and grinding of soil, machines and devices for lifting, moving, loading or unloading, electric generator sets, tires, and telephone accessories.

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