We didn't make a deal

Russia and the United States differed in their assessments of the slow development of bilateral economic relations

On the eve of the start of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, some of its participants decided to talk about the prospects for relations with one country, but a very important one. At the Russian-American round table it turned out that relations are developing more slowly than both sides would like, but they understand the reasons for this in completely different ways. “The feeling is that the reaction of American companies to positive changes in the Russian economy is lagging. There is a certain wait-and-see attitude,” complained Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina.

That is, Russia has long been ready to absorb more investments , especially “smart” investments, as the minister called them, in high-tech sectors of the economy. However, American companies are not yet in a hurry to conquer our promising and “smarter” market. The share of the world's largest economy in Russian trade turnover is only 4%, while the European Union accounts for more than 50%. And the United States is also in no hurry to recognize Russia as an equal partner. “Russia’s early accession to the WTO and its removal from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment would be significant for the development of economic dialogue,” said Ms. Nabiullina.

However, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who spoke after her, did not even mention these problems. He only diplomatically noted: “Differences between countries obscure the good that we have been able to achieve.” Instead of the extremely painful topic for Russia, when negotiations on its accession to the World Trade Organization will end, the minister spoke about the prospects of the Russian market for American companies. “The potential for creating new jobs in Russia is 300 thousand,” he said. At the same time, the minister noted that US trade turnover with Central American countries is higher than with Russia. According to him, American investments in the Russian economy amounted to $16 billion, while Russian investments in the American economy amounted to only $5 billion.

However, it turned out that not everyone is looking forward to the arrival of foreign capital. The chairman of the supervisory board of the Renova group, Viktor Vekselberg, who heads the international affairs committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, issued a sharp rebuke of the special attitude towards foreigners. “The Advisory Council on Foreign Investments (under the government of the Russian Federation. - Ed. ) looks quite strange. For some reason, foreign investors are confident that by coming to the government with so-called problems, they will solve them beyond the scope of common business problems,” - said Mr. Vekselberg.

Vera SITNINA, St. Petersburg