The entry into force of a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Iran will become a strong impulse for the development of strategic relations, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday at an enlarged meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council.
"The work carried out to conclude a full-fledged agreement made it possible to form a package of arrangements providing for preferential access of the EEU member states' exports to Iran. Such conditions of access to the Iranian market for our exporters can be called exclusive," he was quoted as saying by ARKA news agency.
Pashinyan noted that this year the agreement will be signed with the support of EEU member states, especially since the Iranian side also holds the same stance.
On Jan. 19, 2022, Iran and EEU signed an agreement to establish a free trade zone following the meeting of the delegations of the two sides.
Iran’s head of Trade Promotion Organization, Alireza Peymanpak, said that as part of the Free Trade Zone agreement, Iran and EEU approved zero tariffs on 90% of goods. The FTA deal will enter into force by the end of September 2023.
Earlier, Pashinyan had stated that the implementation of the free trade agreement between Iran and the EEU is a priority for Armenia.
“Given the high dynamics of the development of cooperation with Iran, the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement and its subsequent implementation are priorities for us in the context of a real expansion of trade cooperation with third countries,” he was quoted as saying at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Moscow.
Privileges for Armenia
With the implementation of the free-trade zone agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia will receive privileges for a number of products, including food products, Armenian Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said recently.
At the same time, he recalled that it is very difficult to export goods to Iran, but the main reason is not customs duties.
The Armenian economy minister explained that Iran strives for self-sufficiency in all the main branches of the economy, and this sharply complicates the competition, News.am reported.
"The main direction of cooperation with Iran is the joint production of goods that can be sold all over the world," Kerobyan added.
The Eurasian Economic Union may strike a deal on a free trade zone with Iran earlier than with other countries, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Overchuk was recently quoted as saying by TASS.
"We are closest with Iran," he said when asked which countries the EEU is closest to for reaching an agreement on a free trade zone.
EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission) Trade Minister Andrey Slepnev said earlier that the agreement on a free trade zone between the EEU and Iran could be signed as early as this year.
Overchuk said Russia is negotiating free trade zone agreements with a number of Muslim countries.
"Within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, we have been negotiating the creation of a free trade zone with a number of Muslim states, including Egypt, Iran, the UAE. We have already started negotiations with them, and we are about to begin talks with Indonesia," he told the plenary session of the 14th international economic forum Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum on Friday.
"We see our bilateral trade growing, and it may indicate that our countries are becoming closer to each other. Our task for today is to reduce trade barriers and simplify contacts, primarily in the economic sphere.”
