Iran, EEU Sign Draft PTA

A draft agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union was signed in Yerevan, Armenia, on Wednesday for levying preferential export tariffs on 350 Iranian industrial products in return for 180 commodities from the EEU.

The agreement was signed by Deputy Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mojtaba Khosrotaj, who is also chairman of Iran's Trade Promotion Organization, and Trade Minister of EEU Veronica Nikishina, IRNA reported.

A Russian Agriculture Ministry’s report released late June after negotiations on a temporary agreement for the creation of an Iran-EEU free trade zone read that Iran was ready to make tariff concessions on a wide range of agricultural products, excluding wheat, refined oil, mineral water and cigarettes, Russian news agency TASS reported.

“In its maximum proposal presented at the round, Iran demonstrated its readiness to make concessions under the terms requested by member states, in almost all items the EEU is interested in, excluding wheat, refined oil, mineral water and cigarettes,” the ministry said.

The Eurasian Economic Union is an international integration economic association of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The EEU came into existence from January 1, 2015, after it superseded the Eurasian Economic Community that functioned from 2000 to 2014.

The treaty on the establishment of EEU was signed by the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on May 29, 2014, in Astana.

The union has an integrated single market of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over $4 trillion.

EEU calls for the free movement of goods, capital, services and people and provides for common transport, agriculture and energy policies, with provisions for a single currency and greater integration in the future.