RUSSO-JAPANESE TRADE.

According to Robert Ruzanov, Russia’s trade representative in Japan, trade between the two countries reached $6 billion in 1995 but fell to $5 billion in 1996, due mainly to the weakening of the yen. Russian exports to Japan consist mainly of metals (34 percent), fish (31 percent) and timber (18 percent). Japanese exports are led by machinery (20 percent), cars (14 percent) and TVs (11 percent).(Delovoi mir, October 29)

Ruzanov noted that credits totaling $900 million that Japan granted three years ago to finance exports to Russia are virtually untouched — mainly because Russian firms do not have the cash to make the 15 percent advance payment required. The main hope for a revival of trade with Japan — and recovery of the economy of the Russian Far East in general — now lies in progress in the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 oil projects. Currently work is beginning on a $40 million drilling platform base at the Komsomolsk-na-Amur shipyard.

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