Russia and Europe’s trade relations after the war

In 2020, the EU was Russia’s first trade partner, with 37.3% of total global trade in the world. 36.5% of Russia’s imports were from the EU and 37.9% of Russia’s exports were to the EU. In 2021, trade between the EU and Russia was worth 2757.5 billion euros and Russia was the 5th largest trade partner of the EU. Russia was one of the most important suppliers of coal, gas, oil etc to the EU. Now, the EU is phasing a ban on Russian coal imports, but still debating on oil imports as a majority of Europe depends on Russian oil. On the 14th of march 2022, the EU, Canada, Japan, the US, the UK and 9 other world trade organisation members issued statements about the war, most standing with ukraine. European countries applied trade restrictions (import bans)on Russia and Belarus, banning steel, coal, cement, rubber, wood etc. Export bans on Russia include quantum computing products, semiconductors, sensitive machinery etc, products worth 10 billion euros. The export sanctions are worth 22.8 billion euros and are 25% of the EU’s pre war exports.

-Anjana