EEU-Iran Free Trade Talks Ongoing

EghtesadOnline: The Eurasian Economic Union and Iran may sign an agreement on trade and economic relations in a few months, a spokeswoman for the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development and Investment said.

News ID: ۷۷۵۶۰۳

22 April 2017

“Negotiations (between EEU and Iran) on trade and economic cooperation are continuing; they have not been suspended,” Anna Ohanyan was also quoted as telling the Armenian news agency ARKA.

“The parties should discuss the agreement in detail. The delaying of the process does not mean abandoning the project; it will simply be implemented a little later,” she added.

The Eurasian Economic Commission’s Board of Directors agreed on May 16 to begin consultations on a temporary agreement on a free trade area with Iran, according to Financial Tribune.

“The EEU has begun discussions on having a preferential trade agreement with Iran at the initiative of Armenia,” Armenian deputy minister of foreign affairs, Shavarsh Kocharyan, announced back in November.

“When we felt that the sanctions against Iran might be cancelled, we immediately initiated this process,” he said.

Tehran reached an agreement last year to export pistachio, cauliflower, broccoli, date and different kinds of raisins at zero tariff to EEU member states.

The Eurasian Economic Union is located in northern Eurasia.

A treaty for the establishment of the EEU was signed in May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on January 1, 2015.

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.