The EU announces: Trade with Russia is declining

The European Statistical Office (Eurostat) has published data on trade between the EU and Russia in the second quarter.

Consequently, EU trade with Russia was severely affected by the sanctions imposed after the war in Ukraine.

While Russia’s share in total EU imports was 9.6 percent in February 2022, this rate fell to 1.7 percent in June 2023. In this period, Russia’s share in exports from the EU decreased from 3.8 percent to 1.4 percent. Russia’s share of total EU trade in the second quarter fell below 2 percent.

LARGEST TRADE DEFICIT WITH RUSSIA

The EU had the largest trade deficit with Russia at €18.5 billion in March 2022 due to high prices for energy products. The trade deficit between the EU and Russia narrowed to 400 million euros in June this year.

EU exports to Russia rose from €3.4 billion in March 2022 to €2.9 billion in June 2023. In the second quarter of 2021, the pre-war period, the EU supplied 38.5 percent of its natural gas, 29.2 percent of its oil, and 45 percent of its coal from Russia. In the second quarter of this year, the share of the EU’s natural gas imports from Russia decreased to 12.9 percent, the share of oil imports to 2.3 percent and the share of coal imports steel.

11 PACKAGES OF SANCTIONS ANNOUNCED

The EU has so far applied 11 sanctions packages against Russia. Within this framework, a wide range of restrictions were applied to Russia on trade, finance, energy, including oil and coal, industry, technology, transportation, dual-use and luxury goods, and gold. The assets of more than a thousand people and nearly 250 institutions were frozen. (AA)