“During this crisis, in 2014 – 2016, the physical volume of our exports to the United States was increasing at a rather rapid pace. Now, after the exchange rate has settled, significant growth is also registered in value terms,” Stadnik said.
Russia primarily exports oil and gas products, machinery, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, precious metals as well as logistical and IT services, according to the trade envoy.
“Moreover big Russia companies such as NLMK, Norilsk Nickel, TNK and others have their plants and successfully work in the United States exporting their products to third countries,” Stadnik said.
From the trade envoy's point of view, US companies are also interested in working on the Russian market, sometimes using it as a springboard to enter third countries' markets.
Stadnik added that Russia was turning into a large logistical project and the United States wanted to develop ties with the Eurasian continent in various areas, such container traffic.
Ties between Russian and US business communities may become the chief means of improving the two states’ relations, Russia's trade representative in the United States told Sputnik on Monday.
“As for the business communities of the two states, the trust here remains, joint projects between our businesses continue and this lets us say that business ties may become the bridge which will bring us to civilized interaction with regard to the rest of the issues,” Aleksander Stadnik said.
Interaction between the US and Russian businesses had never stopped, Stadnik stressed, noting that there were, however, still no prospects for US-Russian relations to recover in the near future.
Relations between Russia and the Western states deteriorated amid the Ukrainian crisis, as Brussels and Washington placed the blame for the eastern Ukraine conflict on Russia and continue to refuse to recognize Crimea’s rejoining Russia as a result of the March 2014 referendum. The United States and the European Union showed their disapproval of Russia’s alleged meddling in the Ukrainian affairs by introducing several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions despite the fact that Moscow has repeatedly refuted the allegations.
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