Over the past 10 years, the political relations between the Russian Federation and the United States have tended to slowly but inexorably build up contradictions. Outwardly, representatives of the governing apparatus of both countries maintain the appearance of mutual tolerance and respect, but in fact, the political elites of both countries have opposite points of view on many issues.
At the same time, Moscow and Washington have a number of common topics that affect both the interests of the two states and the interests of the world community. These issues relate to arms control, the fight against international terrorism, and information security.
Despite all the difficulties listed above, the economy remains one of the areas in which both countries rely on a purely pragmatic approach. Business representatives in both countries are interested in continuing and increasing the mutually beneficial partnership. Even the relentless anti-Russian sentiment in the ranks of the American economic elite and various restrictions do not reduce the progressive dynamics in trade and economic relations in certain areas. This is proved by a detailed analysis of foreign economic activity, which we will deal with in the following sections.
Analysis of economic relations – trade between the United States and Russia
The global trends of falling production and demand associated with the global pandemic inevitably affected the economic status of both countries. Trade volumes could not but decline, but contrary to pessimistic forecasts, this decline did not reach a catastrophic scale. The spread of COVID-19 has led to certain positions, but in some areas there has even been an increase in comparison with previous years.
Let’s go directly to the numbers. The analysis of the US-Russian trade turnover in 2019 amounted to $ 26.17 billion with a total cargo weight of 25.77 million tons. The minimum monthly indicator traditionally fell in January, the maximum-in March. Compared to 2018, the volume increased by 4.9%.
The main goods that passed through the customs offices of both countries in the framework of official trade:
- mineral fuel, oil and petroleum products, mineral waxes (the cost is about 26%, the weight is 66%);
- products of the military-industrial complex, natural gas and the aviation industry – goods from the «secret code» SSSS category related to the economic security of the country (17% by value, 0.05% by weight);
- nuclear reactors, boilers, equipment (8.25% — cost, 0.26% — weight).
Next in the list are land transport vehicles, natural pearls, instruments and optical devices. The turnover is realized through three main regions-Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Moscow Region.
According to the statistics of the Federal Customs Service, imports from the United States to Russia in value terms amounted to $ 13 billion. In the first place – goods from the category of secret code, followed by nuclear boilers, equipment, ground transport.
Exports from Russia to the United States amounted to $ 13 billion – as you can see, the financial flows of imports and exports are equal. Mineral fuel, oil and petroleum products are in the first place in terms of volume and cost, followed by natural or artificially grown pearls, precious metals, and ferrous metals are in the third place.
The United States is among the top ten exporters and importers in Russia and ranks 7th in this list, behind China, Germany, Lithuania, Italy, Poland, Ukraine and ahead of Uzbekistan. The number of counterparties trading with America reaches 7,000 firms. At the same time, in 2019, the list of companies increased slightly – by 1.5% compared to 2018. There are more importers, but there are fewer exporters by 8%. The total number of firms engaged in imports from the United States is 5751, and exporters-1678.
Comparison of indicators for 2020 and 2019
In 2020, the trade turnover for January-September decreased in comparison with the same period of 2019 for objective reasons. A year ago, during this period, the volumes in monetary terms amounted to $ 19.38 billion, in 20, the figures amounted to $ 17.58 billion. In July 2020, the export-import indicators were minimal – they amounted to 1.6 billion dollars against 2.16 in the same month of 2019. At the same time, the structure of foreign economic activity has hardly changed – with the exception of moving the category «Means of land transport» to the 5th place (against the 4th position in 2019). In the regional structure of exports to the United States, the main exporters were and remained Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Sverdlovsk region.
As we can see, the political situation has almost no effect on the indicators of the economy. The epidemiological situation has a more serious impact than politics. With the increasingly deteriorating foreign policy relations of both countries, trade is conducted almost at the same pace (taking into account the impact of the pandemic). Investment cooperation is also developing. American investments are concentrated mainly in manufacturing, real estate operations, and wholesale trade. Of particular interest to the United States are regions with large mineral reserves, as well as centers of the chemical and metallurgical industries. Therefore, for the coming 2021, the prerequisites for maintaining impressive volumes of mutual trade remain.
