BUENOS AIRES, December 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Argentina signed a memorandum on customs information exchange, Argentine authorities said Wednesday.

The memorandum, in particular, envisions quarterly exchanges of statistics on mutual trade.

The document is designed to contribute to the further development of bilateral ties in the framework of an existing intergovernmental agreement on cooperation and mutual assistance between the two countries' customs services, dated 1997.

First deputy head of Russia's Federal Customs Service Vladimir Malinin and head of Argentina's Federal Public Revenue Administration, Ricardo Echegaray, signed the memorandum.

The global financial crisis affected bilateral trade and economic ties this year. Trade in 2009 is expected to drop to $1.15 billion from nearly $2 billion last year.