Tehran will host the Eurasia Expo 2023 on Dec. 4-7 as Iran is in the final stages of securing a free trade deal with the Eurasian Economic Union.
This is the second edition of the exhibition, which will be held at Tehran’s International Fairground, according to Alireza Jafari, the administrative manager of the event.
Companies active in the fields of oil, gas, petrochemical, chemical, automobile and parts manufacturing, agricultural and food, tourism, medicine, medical equipment, banking, insurance and support funds, knowledge-based and new technologies, rail, sea, road and air transportation, technology and industry will showcase their products and services at the expo.
On the sidelines of the event, specialized meetings will be held to discuss the development of economic relations with Eurasian, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Persian Gulf countries, customs, transportation and green corridor, as well as the role of banks and export guarantee funds in trade development, IRIB News reported.
Examining the role of domestic universities in the commercialization of science and development of economic relations, as well as the role of tourism in cultural relations are among other topics on the agenda.
On Jan. 19, 2022, Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union signed an agreement to establish a free trade zone following the meeting of the delegations of the two sides.
Iran’s Deputy Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade and the head of the 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 Free Trade Zone agreement will enter into force by the end of September 2023.
The two sides had signed a three-year provisional agreement in Astana, Kazakhstan, on May 17, 2018, for the bloc to welcome Iran into EEU.
EEU is an economic union of some post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on May 24, 2014, by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on January 1, 2015. Treaties aiming for Armenia's and Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on Oct. 9 and Dec. 23, 2014, respectively.
Kyrgyzstan participated in EEU from the day of its establishment as an acceding state.
Russia expects that an agreement on a free trade zone between Iran and EEU will be signed before the end of the year, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk said this in an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"Now, indeed, the EEU has come very close to concluding such an agreement with Iran. This issue was touched upon, including at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, and received the support of the heads of government. Therefore, we are making progress. The agreement can be signed," he said.
