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Belarus Imports
Both before and after independence, most of Belarus's
imports
came from Russia (64 percent in 1990) and Ukraine (19
percent in
1990). However, the foreign trade situation worsened for
Belarus
as the former Soviet Union continued to disintegrate
economically. Imports from such countries as Germany,
Poland, and
the United States increased, so that by 1994 only 76
percent of
Belarus's imports came from former Soviet republics.
Belarus was
now paying higher prices for goods it had previously
imported
cheaply from them. The greatest drain on its finances now
consisted of imports of raw materials and oil, whose
prices
increased greatly in the early to mid-1990s.
In 1994 Belarus's imports from non-CIS countries
decreased by
nearly 13 percent from 1993 to US$534 million.
Its imports from CIS countries were estimated at US$3.1
billion,
a decrease of over 57 percent by volume from the previous
year.
In the mid-1990s, Belarus imported oil, natural gas,
coal,
rolled ferrous metal, nonferrous metals, commercial lumber
and
sawed timber, chemical products, raw materials for the
chemical
industry, cement, cotton yarn, silk, machines and
equipment,
automobiles and buses, sewing machines and washing
machines,
paper, grain, forage, cooking oil, sugar, tea, fish and
fish
products, vegetables, and consumer goods. A few items were
subject to restrictions for health and security reasons,
including chemicals and industrial waste. An improved
import
tariff structure was introduced in October 1993, partly in
line
with
World Bank (see Glossary) recommendations.
Data as of June 1995
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