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U.S.-Russia trade not booming

The Obamas leave Air Force One after they touch down in Moscow for President Barack Obama's trade meeting.

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Stacey Vanek-Smith: And the choice of a new generation is evidently Russia. PepsiCo has announced a plan to invest a billion dollars in Russia over the next three years. It's part of a major push by Pepsi to expand into developing markets. And the cola is in good company -- President Obama begins his trip to Russia this morning. His plane just touched down in Moscow. It's Obama's first visit to Russia as president. Nuclear proliferation and arms control are on the agenda. So is the economic relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Marketplace's Steve Henn has more.


Steve Henn: Clifford Gaddy is an economist and a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution. He says when it comes to trading relations between the U.S. and Russia, there is not a whole lot going on.

Clifford Gaddy: I think it would surprise most people to know how small they are.

The U.S. does more business with the Netherlands, and U.S. firms do roughly twice the business in China in a single month than they do in Russia over an entire year.

Gaddy: At the same time, this also tells us that there's great potential. There's great untapped potential.

For example, both the U.S. and Russia could benefit from greater foreign investment in Russia's oil fields. More Russian oil production would lower global prices while boosting Russian revenue.

But for now, all that seems unlikely. Just three weeks ago, Russia withdrew its long-standing application to join the World Trade Organization. Gaddy believes Russians were fed up that its WTO membership application was bogged down by non-economic issues like its invasion of Georgia.

In Washington, I'm Steve Henn for Marketplace.

About the author

Steve Henn was Marketplace’s technology and innovation reporter for the entire portfolio of Marketplace programs until December 2011.
Jim Sack's picture
Jim Sack - Dec 24, 2009

A couple years back, while working for a large construction company, we were approached by a Russian company to build a hospital near St. Petersburg. We eventually turned down the offer after consulting with those in our business who had already concluded deals in Russia. The challenges were many, they said, including, and not least, in getting paid. We see a contract as an agreement, the Russians, they noted, see a signed contract as merely a starting point and expect to frequently renegotiate many clauses, including compensation.