Assessment of the Food Embargo Impact on the Trajectory of Foreign Trade Development in Agricultural Products

Abstract

AbstractThe food embargo imposed by the Russian Federation reduced foreign trade operations with a large group of countries that should have led to a change in the geographical structure of Russia’s foreign trade. Based on the statistical database of International trade centre and customs RF, the export-import operations of the Russian Federation with counterparty countries are analyzed and the main changes in the geographical structure of foreign trade are revealed. The conducted research partially refutes the existence of only a negative effect from the introduction of the food embargo. Undoubtedly, Russia, like the EU countries, suffers significant losses from sanctions, but due to the introduction of the embargo the country was able to significantly increase exports of its agricultural products, including to countries on the sanction list. The result of the sanctions war is a reduction in foreign trade cooperation with EU countries not only in agriculture, but also in other areas. Despite the bellicose rhetoric, the United States has increased its share in the foreign trade turnover of the Russian Federation. The search for new significant foreign trade partners in Latin America and Africa has not yielded any qualitative results. Cooperation with these countries continues to be random and not on an ongoing basis.KeywordsForeign tradeExportImportSanctionsFood embargoRussiaGeographical structure of foreign trade