Russia-ASEAN foreign trade: key development trends

Abstract

The article analyzes the changes in the volume, commodity structure and geographical distribution of foreign trade between Russia and ASEAN. The main reciprocal trade trends are: insignificant ASEAN role in Russia’s trade, as well as Russia’s in ASEAN foreign trade; traditional Russia’s commodities-oriented exports, whereas finished industrial products dominate in Russia’s imports from the Association; Russian negative trade. The main pitfalls in enhancing reciprocal trade are: traditional geographical orientation of ASEAN exports and imports to the countries of North-East Asia, the USA and the European Union; poor awareness of ASEAN states about the trade opportunities of our country; geographical distance between countries; low logistics development level resulting in the use of intermediary services in Singapore and Western European countries. Basing on the calculation of Russia’s export and import intensity indices (less than 1) it is concluded that creation of a free trade zone between Eurasian Economic Union / Russia and ASEAN might have insignificant economic effect on both sides. Therefore, it would be reasonable to focus on signing such agreements with individual ASEAN countries, which are relatively important Russia’s trading partners in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore or Indonesia.