Speaking on the eve of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's May 23-24 visit to China, Sergei Tsyplakov said that Russian exports to China were dominated by raw materials, while the share of Russian machinery and technological products, including military hardware, was declining.
"Exports of Russian machinery tools to China lack large-scale joint projects... in the short-term it is difficult to count on major sales of Russian technology on the Chinese market," said the trade envoy.
According to Tsyplakov, Russia is currently experiencing an influx of consumer electronic and household goods as well as machine tools from China, the latter amounting to 30% in 2007 of all Chinese exports to Russia.
In 2007, a trade surplus in favor of China was registered for the first time in bilateral relations, the trade envoy said, adding that the trend was set to continue, "in the long-term."
According to the trade mission, over the period 2003-2007, Chinese exports to Russia doubled from 5.8% to 12.2%, while Russian exports to China fell from 6.2% to 4.5%. Last year Russian exports to China grew 12.1% to $19.67 billion while Chinese exports to Russia went up 79.9% to $28.48 billion.
Russia and China earlier set a joint goal of increasing bilateral trade to $60 billion and possibly to $80 billion by 2010.
