- Vladimir Vladimirovich, in 2018, Russian exports increased by 26% and amounted to about $ 450 billion. Is there any understanding today how much the value can change in 2019? Can we exceed last year?

- In general, our export performance is now following the same path as last year. In this context, it is important to take into account the particularities of accounting statistics - we separately calculate the physical volume of exported products and the monetary value of the goods supplied. At the moment, we can say that physically our export is growing. Compared to last year, the volume has already increased by 2%. In addition, we now expect the launch of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, which will allow us to further increase our supplies abroad.

Nevertheless, if we talk about the monetary volume of exports, then this figure has now decreased slightly. The fact is that traditionally in our export a high share - about 65% - is occupied by mineral resources and products of their processing. In this regard, statistics are highly dependent on the situation in global commodity markets. Thus, the observed decrease in the value of exports is due, for example, to a drop in gas prices. However, with the approach of winter prices may again go up.

Thus, at the moment, our exports are near the levels of 2018. But still, with the launch of the Power of Siberia, we must overcome last year’s indicators.

- Which countries are currently the main buyers of Russian goods?

- Among the states, the first place in our export, of course, is China. In the Chinese sector, we are now recording growth in both exports and imports. If we talk about economic blocs, then in this sense, our main trading partner is the European Union.

Meanwhile, new trends have emerged in the structure of our trade turnover. At the moment, political processes have a great influence on foreign trade, so the share of the EU is slightly reduced. Compared to last year, it decreased from about 43% to 41%. At the same time, the share of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, largely due to China, increased by about 2% to 16%.

However, if we again talk about the states, immediately after China, Germany and the Netherlands remain the largest trading partners of Russia. They are an important transportation hub for transshipment of our mineral resources for further resale to other countries. Following them are our traditional partners, such as Belarus with Kazakhstan, Italy and, for example, the United States, with which we also now record growth in foreign trade.

- You mentioned that the bulk of our exports are mineral resources. Meanwhile, Russia is now actively increasing the supply of non-primary products, and by 2024 the corresponding volume should reach $ 250 billion. Is there any understanding today on what figure we will reach by the end of 2019?

- Let me remind you that in 2018 Russia exported non-primary non-energy goods worth $ 149 billion. Now we are moving in a similar direction and expect that by the end of 2019 we will be able to exceed this figure.

  • Vladimir Ivin on the growth of non-oil exports

- What kind of non-primary goods do we deliver to other countries today?

- First of all, it is petrochemicals, metal products and various metal structures. This is followed by food: cereals, dairy products, honey, nuts, various types of meat - mainly poultry and pork.

We also actively supply machinery and equipment. In this industry, we are now seeing a slight decrease in exports. Most likely, it was caused by a general trend towards a decrease in demand in local markets, but indicators are still not bad.

- Is this decline in demand and some slowdown in export growth in some sectors due to factors such as trade wars?

- Most likely, this is true. A change in the rules of the game in the regulation of international trade causes a certain change in the volumes and directions of commodity flows. All these processes, as a consequence, are reflected in our foreign trade statistics. Actions such as the growth of protectionism, about which there is a lot of talk now, the conduct of trade wars - all this cannot but tell. Therefore, our exporters need to adapt to new realities.

  • Vladimir Ivin on the impact of trade wars on Russian trade

We are in constant contact with the Russian Export Center (REC). The organization is just studying the change in external conditions and comes up with initiatives on how we, from the point of view of customs administration, could help exporters adapt to new conditions of access to foreign markets.

- What exactly are the measures taken by the Federal Customs Service to support exporters and stimulate non-resource supplies?

- We have a whole range of measures to improve customs administration as a whole, and primarily in the export direction. We have transferred the maximum number of procedures to a number. We have a share of electronic declarations that are registered automatically, approached 90%. Half of them are automatically issued. That is, everything happens according to the established algorithm in automatic mode.

As for physical control, when a product needs to be really looked at and felt with your hands, this only happens in cases involving risks. This year, this year we have the lowest percentage of searches and other forms of control, which would involve stopping the goods and studying them. The share of such goods has never dropped below 1%, and now it is about 0.7%.

As regards the support of exporters, together with the REC we regularly adjust our technologies. As an example, I can cite specially published recommendations for customs authorities for processing goods that are supposed to be sold through online platforms in foreign markets.

This is a procedure when goods are exported, but not sold immediately, but are waiting for their buyer to order them. This is an unconventional approach to conventional trading. For such cases, we refined our technologies so that from the point of view of currency control and technological aspects of customs procedures, we would not complicate this type of control.

- Russia today has very close cooperation with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. In 2018, our volume of trade with the EAEU countries grew by almost 10% and amounted to $ 57.8 billion. How much can the indicator increase in 2019? What is the share of the EAEU countries in Russia's trade?

- The share of the EAEU countries in our trade volume today averages about 8-8.5%. Now we are seeing a slight decrease in our exports. This is largely due to the fact that since the end of 2018, the conditions for the export of mineral products to the Republic of Belarus have slightly changed, so the volume has decreased. And since mineral products prevail in our export, this has influenced general trends. For all other trading positions, we now record growth on average from 2% to 4%.

  • Vladimir Ivin on Russia's trade with the EAEU countries

- What kind of goods does Russia today deliver to its partners in the EAEU?

- Our exports to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union are quite well diversified. If the share of mineral resources in the total volume of Russian deliveries abroad is about 65%, then in the trade with the EAEU countries this figure is not so significant and amounts to slightly less than 50%. In addition to raw materials, we actively supply food, petrochemicals, machinery and equipment.

- What goods do we mainly import from the EAEU countries?

- As for imports, the first place is occupied by dairy products, largely due to the Republic of Belarus. In general, the range of our purchases is quite wide. This includes engineering products, and agricultural products, as well as coal, ore, metal products. In addition, we are working together in a number of industries, when we purchase raw materials from countries, manufacture products from it and export it back.