KIEV, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Trade between Ukraine and Belarus has been rising for three consecutive years due to strengthening bilateral economic ties, local media reported Friday, citing Ukraine's ambassador to Belarus.
"We have a stable tendency of the annual increase in trade turnover by 16-20 percent. These figures are significant," Igor Kizim told the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency.
According to him, Belarus was ranked as Ukraine's second-largest trading partner in 2018 among the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, after Russia, with bilateral trade amounting to 5.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Ukraine-Belarus trade volume stood at 4.6 billion dollars in 2017 and 3.8 billion dollars in 2016, Kizim added.
Currently, Ukraine imports mainly fuel products from Belarus and exports food, transport and electronic products, Kizim said.
He noted that Ukraine would like to work with Belarus to expand trade volume to 8 billion dollars this year.
