The article estimates the results of the development of foreign trade relations in the complicated conditions during the previous three years. It gives evaluation of the process of reorientation of parts of the trade and investment flows from the European to Asian direction. It states that the policy of export promotion and import substitution can push forward the economic growth only if a large-scale production of goods and services comparable with foreign analogues according to the criteria price/quality has been organized. The author concludes that in the present difficult conditions foreign challenges can and must be addressed through the coordinated and consistent cooperation of the state and business in order to overcome the technological gap between Russia and leading countries, which conserves a very strong dependence of Russia on the world market, and to raise competitiveness of the industries and enterprises outside the scope of the fuel and energy complex and the military-industrial complex.