European Commission Directorate-General for Trade

Belarus

Although trade between the EU and Belarus has grown in recent years the EU has suspended moves towards closer economic partnership with Belarus until its government is able to show a greater commitment to democracy and political and civil rights. In response to the deterioration of Belarus' internal political situation, the EU has not ratified the bilateral Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) concluded with Belarus in 1995. Therefore bilateral trade and economic relations remain covered by the  Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) concluded by the European Community with the then Soviet Union in 1989 and subsequently endorsed by Belarus. Belarus applied for membership of the WTO in 1993. Its accession process is ongoing.

The EU has suspended moves towards closer economic partnership with Belarus until political and civil conditions improve

Trade in goods

• EU good exports to Belarus 2008: €6,359 billion
• EU goods imports from Belarus 2008: €6,072 billion

The EU-Belarus bilateral trade in goods has been growing steadily in the last five years and the EU is Belarus' 2nd main trade partner with almost 1/3 share in its overall trade (after Russia with almost 1/2). Belarus' exports to the EU are dominated by Mineral fuels (65,7%) while other product categories form each a much lower share, concretely chemicals (8,2%), agricultural products (3.5%) machinery (2,6%) and textiles (2,4%). The EU exports mainly machinery (36,6%), transport equipment (17,5%) and chemicals (14,8%) to Belarus.

Trade in services

• EU27 Total services exports to Belarus 2006: € 0,880 billion
• EU27 Total service imports from Belarus 2006: € 0,605 billion

Foreign direct investment

• EU investment stocks in Belarus as of 2006: € 0,404 billion
• Belarus investment stocks in the EU as of 2006: € 0,114 billion

More statistics on Belarus

Temporary withdrawal of the EU Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) from Belarus

In response to a systematic and serious violation of the core principles of the International Labour Organisation, of which Belarus is a member, the European Commission recommended that trade preferences to Belarus under the Generalised System of Preferences be withdrawn and the EU Member States approved this proposal in December 2006. When Belarus failed to significantly improve the protection of core labour rights, the withdrawal entered into force on 21 June 2007. Once Belarus has shown that it respects basic trade union rights, the EU is ready to immediately reverse its decision on GSP withdrawal. It should be noted that GSP withdrawal is not a sanction related to the political situation, but the cancellation of a trade privilege. The removal of the trade preferences will not halt Belarus' exports to the EU - it will simply return Belarus' import tariffs to the standard non-preferential rate.

The EU does not apply any trade sanctions against Belarus, but the country is subject to one of the tightest bilateral textile trade regimes amongst EU trade partners. The EC-Belarus bilateral textile agreement setting quotas on Belarus' textiles exports to the EU has been in place since 1993 and has been renewed on several occasions (in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007) and is currently applicable until the end of 2009.