The Russian American Pacific Partnership (RAPP), an annual bilateral forum co-chaired by the Russian economics ministry and the U.S. Department of Commerce, will be held in the city of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk.
RAPP, formerly known as the U.S. West Coast-Russian Far East Ad-Hoc Working Group, was established in 1994 to encourage commercial cooperation between the U.S. West Coast and the Russian Far East.
The forum engages the private-sector and government to identify and address barriers to commerce to expand opportunities between the two regions.
The portfolio of projects implemented by RAPP includes multilateral exploration of a new shipping trade route "East-by-West Corridor" between Northern China and the U.S. northwest via Russian ports in Primorye, and a pilot project with Russian customs geared toward reducing customs clearance times for marine cargoes in select Russian ports from an average nine days down to 1.5 days.
