New trade agreements of the Eurasian Economic Union will allow opening more than 300,000 additional jobs. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
Andrey Slepnev, Trade Minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission, stated that if in 2019 the share of Western countries in the foreign trade of the EAEU countries was 60 percent, now this figure is below 20 percent. Conversely, the share of Global South countries increased from 40 to 80 percent.
According to the minister, the volume of foreign trade has practically not decreased. "We were able to quickly expand old markets, find new markets, and establish new connections," he said.
Andrey Slepnev cited the first free trade agreement with Vietnam within the union as an example. Thanks to this agreement, exports of meat products, mineral fertilizers, chemical industry products, and metallurgical goods increased several times.
As the EEC minister noted, such growth will result in many new jobs. He also said that agreements with Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia, which will enter into force, have great prospects. It is planned that the volume of goods supplies to these countries will increase by approximately $12 billion. As a result, about 160,000 additional jobs will be created in the EAEU economy.
Andrey Slepnev also called the Indian direction promising. "We expect that the volume of goods supplies will increase by approximately $10 billion. This will allow creating another about 180,000 new highly productive jobs," he noted.
Moreover, according to the minister, many trade agreements will give a significant impetus to strengthening regional economies.