Export opportunities to Russia damaged by lack of any progress in Joint Economic Council, state the Irish Exporters Association ( IEA), at its Ireland Russia Business Association seminar in Dublin today- 9th June

Speaking at the Ireland Russia Business Association (an IEA subsidiary) seminar in Dublin, John Whelan, chief executive of the Exporters Association said; ‘’The Ireland – Russia Joint Economic Commission (JEC) was set-up to drive the development of the trade between the countries, which reflected the fact that Russia is a strategic European growth market for the Irish companies. There have been eight annual JEC meetings so far; however the JEC has made no progress during this time. It still lacks any foundation, strategy and process. At this point, the JEC seems to be a rather formal structure with little substance, which must be disappointing for all. The IRBA strongly recommend a review with industry (through the medium of the Ireland Russia Business Association ) before the next and 9th JEC meeting due to be held later this year , to try to invigorate the process and drive real deliverables.’’He went on to say;
‘’There is an urgent need to move the Joint Economic Council out of the Dept of Enterprise Jobs and Innovation and into the Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade to both give the DFA some real meaning as a Trade promotion body , as well as give real drive to the JEC process.’’

He further stated;
‘’Russia offers significant potential for Irish companies with it’s total imports globally last year of $192 billion , and it’s rapid adoption of new products in the ICT sector ,a strong agri-food demand and expanding pharmaceutical demands .Irish businesses have expressed concerns at the high level of bureaucracy ,customs delays , high duty and excise tariffs as well as logistics log jams. The IRBA are therefore very concerned that there is no Enterprise Ireland manager in place in Russia now. In these circumstances it is no wonder that our exports to Russia last year were only €376 million –much the same as our exports to Greece.’’

He concluded by saying;“We have an EU-Russia Summit in progress right now, and a WTO accession negotiations with Russia due to be completed this year. Both with significant implications for Irish trade with that country, but we get the worrying impression that we have here monitoring the situation. Greater authority and resources must be given to the new Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade if we wish to get a major acceleration of trade and investment between us and foreign markets such as Russia, over the coming year.