The $27bn in business that the United States does each year with Russia sounds pretty good until you realize that Central America is a far more important trading partner for the U.S.
"It could be a lot better, a lot stronger, a lot bigger. We are just getting started in terms of our commercial relations," U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez recently told a panel discussion at the St Petersburg Economic Forum, Russia's main annual investor event.
"We should be doing a lot more trade with Russia," he said. "We do more trade with Central America--a very small, relatively small community--than we do with Russia, and Russia is a $1.3tr economy and growing very rapidly."
Russia expects to receive over $60bn in foreign direct investment this year, much more than in 2007, Economy Minister Elvia Nabiullina told the same panel earlier.
Ministry data shows the United States is Russia's eighth-largest trading partner, far behind the more than $50bn in bilateral trade last year between Russia and its largest trading partner, Germany.
Source: Reuters, http://www.reuters.com