Exports Agency: Eurasian Union Markets Promising for Syrian Products

The Exports Development and Promotion Agency has prepared a study on trade exchange between Syria and countries of the Eurasian Economic Union which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

The study made a comparison between some economic and trade indicators in Syria to those of the Union’s states in terms of products competitiveness and trade facilitation.

According to the study, Syria seeks establishing international partnerships to gain new markets for its national products.

 In the past years, Syria joined regional agreements including the big Free Trade Arab Zone and signed partnership agreements with neighboring countries. However, nowadays, Syria  has become in need to reconsider these agreements and partnerships and to be more open economically on the Eurasian bloc particularly because of the unfair economic siege imposed on the Syrian people and the ongoing terrorist war, the study said.

Joining this bloc, the study added, will enable Syria to get goods and investments and to market its high quality products. It will encourage domestic economic activities, thereby attracting new investments that create new job opportunities in Syria. In addition, it will enhance the political, economic, cultural and social relations between Syria on the one hand and Russia and other Eurasian Union states on the other.

According to the study, the Syrian and Russian products are integrated and that the Eurasian Union market is promising for promoting Syrian goods. Some Syrian products have high quality advantages and can be competitive in this market.

The study indicated that improving the infrastructure in Syria, facilitating trade, developing the banking and insurance activities and adapting by international specifications will have direct positive impacts on the performance of production sectors like the transformative industries and the agricultural sector branches and as a result the competitiveness of domestic products will be bigger and will have greater ability to enter international markets.

The Syrian exports, which seek entering the Eurasian Union markets, should enjoy high specifications and competitiveness advantages that are not existed in these countries products, the study said.

Figures indicate that the opportunity is available for the Syrian economy to benefit from the markets of the Eurasian Union states.

Food and live animals are most important Syrian exports to Russia at a rate of 51%, whereas 92% of Syrian exports to Belarus are raw materials except fuel, and 59% of the Syrian exports to Kazakhstan are manufactured products, according to the study.

Rawaa Ghanam