Republic of Belarus: Selected Issues

IMF Staff Country Reports, December 18, 2017

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Belarus has a relatively low level of diversification of exports relative to peers.
Belarus faces different trade regimes vis-à-vis its largest trading partner, Russia, in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU); and its second-largest trading partner, the European Union (EU).
Belarus’s trade patterns are significantly more concentrated than those of peer countries.
Belarus’s largest revealed comparative advantages are in areas where it is difficult to move into new products.

Tariff and nontariff barriers within the EEU are discussed as constraints on trade.
Trade relations with the EU are described as more restrictive compared with relations within the EEU.
Other potential barriers identified include logistics constraints and limited trade facilitation.

WTO accession would help improve export competitiveness.
Further EEU integration could boost trade potential, but carries the attendant risk that trading links become more concentrated rather than diversified.
Belarus has lowered tariffs in recent years, including in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

Subjects: Corporate sector, Credit, Economic sectors, Employment, Exports, International trade, Labor, Money, Public enterprises
Keywords: Baltics, Belarus, Central and Eastern Europe, Corporate sector, CR, Credit, credit growth, debt ceiling, debt rule, Eastern Europe, Employment, employment service, enterprise, Europe, expenditure rule, export, Exports, Global, ISCR, market concentration, Public enterprises, SOEs reform

Republic of Belarus: Selected Issues, IMF Staff Country Reports No. 2017/384 (December 18, 2017).