EAEU free trade cooperation with partner countries: Results of the first decade

This study considers the Eurasian Economic Union’s (EAEU) foreign trade trends with third countries that have signed mutual free trade area (FTA) agreements in various years. It also examines and compares the Eurasian Economic Commission’s efforts with the current economic outcomes. The quantitative analysis is based on foreign trade statistics — both national and mirror. It was found that bilateral trade between the EAEU, as a single integration bloc, and its free trade partner countries grew by 36% between 2014 and 2025, while according to mirror statistics, it grew by 16% (excluding the UAE, Indonesia and Mongolia). The EAEU’s gross exports to these countries increased by 28% during the period under review, while imports rose by 51%; according to mirror statistics, the figures were 5% and 51%, respectively. Import dynamics not only outpaces export growth but is also relatively more stable, indicating the asymmetry in the benefits for the EAEU. The intensification of trade with so-called second- and third-tier developing countries has been instrumental in enabling the EAEU to prevent a decline in trade amid direct anti-Russian sanctions and indirect sanctions against the Union’s member states. However, this does not necessarily require the signing of a free trade agreement with them. The dynamics of foreign trade with FTA partners are driven not so much by preferential trade as by global market conditions, foreign policy contexts, and the limited nature of foreign economic ties. No clear patterns were identified in the trade of individual groups of countries in 2022—2025. This indicates that the FTA agreements themselves cannot, by default, serve as a driver of foreign economic and foreign trade performance.