Uncertainties over Brexit have already hurt the UK’s financial sector, with multiple banks and insurance firms migrating to Europe. Meanwhile, a report by the United Nations trade agency has projected that a no-deal Brexit could cost the UK at least $16 billion in lost EU sales. But it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom for Britain.
Brexit could very well be the push needed to increase trade between Russia and the United Kingdom, to the economic benefit of both countries, says Boris Abramov, Russia’s trade representative to the UK.
The official noted that, for example, “in Russia today, some patients need rare medicines from the UK, however, British licensing rules and the lack of an agreement on trade in medicines with Russia serve to impede their supply. After the country’s exit from the European Union, there will be a chance to solve these problems.”
Furthermore, Abramov noted that trade between the two countries has already enjoyed a steady uptick in recent years, climbing a respectable 7.7 percent in the first half of 2019 alone. Best of all for the Russian side, given Moscow’s recent efforts at diversification of its economy, was the fact that much of this growth was not from energy and raw materials sectors.
Finally, amid British investors’ search for safe investments not burdened by political risks, and Russian efforts to increase awareness of the country’s brands and products in foreign markets via the Russian Export Center’s ‘Made in Russia’ programme, growing Russian-British trade may become a golden opportunity for synergistic cooperation.
UK business, Abramov noted, has already committed to investments in production and research “in the fields of pharmaceutidcals (AstraZeneca, GlaxSmithKline), machine-building (JCB), localization of production in Russia, and strategic cooperation efforts between Rosneft and BP, which are ongoing.”
According to Keen, these opportunities may be limited somewhat by the UK’s hunger for industrial goods, many of which Russia does not produce at the moment.
However, Russia’s trade Delegation in the UK remains confident, estimating the current trade turnover of about $13.7 billion could easily surpass $26 billion by 2024. Russia is already the UK’s 11th largest trading partner outside the EU, with Russia ranking first last year among Britain’s top 20 trade partners in growth in turnover.
Furthermore, along with energy and material resources, which can be help to rebuild the UK’s depleted industrial base, the Russian Export Center’s ‘Made in Russia’ website points to nearly a dozen major sectors, from machine goods, to vehicles, factory equipment, and agricultural combines, to plastics, household chemicals, medical equipment, metalwork, lumber, construction materials and even consumer goods and educational products that Russia is ready to offer Britain.
Gains large and small can be had, depending on the sector. For example, earlier this year, independent UK-based consultancy Agrus Media issued a report speculating that the UK may drop its 6.5 percent duty against Russian ammonium nitrate and ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers post-Brexit, with the government said to have “shown no inclination to restrict imports,” and Russia said to be eager to secure “higher netbacks from the UK market than from sales to Central and South America.”
“Indeed, it seems that other countries could potentially gain additional market shares in the UK fertilizer market in case of ‘no deal’ (or some sort of ‘limited deal’),” Dr. Thomas Glauben, director of the Leibniz-based Institute of Agricultural Development in Transitional Economies, says. - Source: Sputnik-