MOSCOW, 24 September (BelTA) – Western sanctions hinder the external trade of the entire Commonwealth of Independent States, Belarus' Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko said commenting on the outcomes of the CIS Economic Council session held in Moscow under his chairmanship on 24 September, BelTA has learned.
“We have discussed in detail the sanctions imposed on the CIS countries by the collective West. We have come to the conclusion that despite a more than 25% increase in trade within the CIS in the current period, the unjustified sanctions of the collective West have yet taken their toll. They really hamper to a certain extent the foreign trade of the Commonwealth countries,” Igor Petrishenko said.
The deputy prime minister noted that the topic of the Western sanctions was raised at the session by the Belarusian side. “We called on our Commonwealth partners to step up efforts to implement the measures we had agreed on, removing and lowering possible barriers to the movement of goods,” he said.
Answering the question whether the CIS is planning a collective response to the Western sanctions, Igor Petrishenko said: “Right now we are intensifying our interaction; we are going to respond to these sanctions with our integration agenda. Maybe, some time later we will decide that we need to respond more effectively and with better coordination, including to these challenges.”
