Foreign trade relations between Russian Federation and Syrian Arab Republic in terms of Eurasian integration

Abstract

The issues of the relevance of foreign trade cooperation between Russia and Syria, including the opportunities and risks of the Syrian economy for partners; the current state of bilateral trade between Russia and Syria; Syria as a promising direction for the Russian export business and the need for its development are considered. The authors analyzed the foreign trade potential of the dynamics and structure of foreign trade relations, identified comparative advantages in the world commodity markets, determined the place and role of bilateral foreign trade partnership. Russia is one of the key export markets for Syrian agricultural products, whose price competitiveness is supported by zero preferential duties within the framework of the unified system of preferences of the Eurasian Economic Union. In the course of the study, the authors identified the volume of unrealized export potential of Syria to the EAEU countries and vice versa, including in the structure of goods. It is concluded that it is necessary to develop trade relations on a bilateral basis with the help of instruments aimed at raising awareness of consumer demand and supply of national producers, as well as through “soft power” instruments in the field of education. It seems that Syria’s obtaining observer status in the EAEU will become an incentive to strengthen trust relations and investment attractiveness, which, in turn, will become the basis for joint work on infrastructure cross-border logistics projects in Syria (the Five Seas Strategy) and will reduce costs for increasing mutually beneficial bilateral trade. The study contains theoretical and statistical justification, as well as practical proposals for the development of friendly relations and strategic partnership with the Syrian Arab Republic in the context of the development of integration processes of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Keywords

• foreign trade
• syria
• eaeu
• export potential
• trade costs