Iran, EAEU Endorse Free Trade Agreement
Iran’s Deputy Trade Minister Alireza Peymanpak and EAEU Minister of Trade Andrey Slepnev signed the free trade agreement in Tehran.
After signing the deal, Peymanpak, who also serves as head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, said that the agreement will go into force within the next nine months after being approved by the governments and parliaments of Iran and five EAEU members, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus.
He added that administrative governments of EAEU countries are expected to formally approve the free trade agreement with Iran over the next few weeks.
Peymenpak also said the document identified certain products and excluded them from the free trade deal between Iran and the EAEU, meantine, noting that the deal will enable tariff-free exports for more than 90% of products of the two sides.
The EAEU’s executive branch, the EEC, and Iran signed a temporary agreement in December 2021 to set up a free trade zone.
Slepnev, for his part, said that Iran and the EAEU had agreed on a bulk of main issues needed to conclude talks for creating a free trade zone.
Iran signed a preferential trade agreement with the EAEU in November 2019 amid efforts by the Iranian government to diversify trade routes and to offset the impacts of the US sanctions on the country’s economic exchanges with the rest of the world.
The value of trade between Iran and the EAEU rose by 74% year-on-year in 2021 and by another 25% in the first ten months of 2022, according to figure by the EEC.
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