EAEU, Iran sign provisional free trade zone agreement

The current agreement includes an initial list of goods with lowered or cancelled customs fees upon its enforcement. The agreement covers half of mutual trade,' said chairman of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan, according to TASS.

Sargasyan said that in 2017 trade between the EAEU and Iran reached 2.7 billion US dollars, and added after the agreement comes into effect, its signatories will be spared payment of customs duties.

The agreement was inked on the sidelines of an economic forum in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on Thursday.

The list for the EAEU includes meat and fat-and-oil products, certain types of confectioneries and chocolate, cosmetics, electronic and mechanical equipment. Iran will enjoy tariff preferences on vegetables, fruits, dried fruits and building materials.

'Average import duties for industrial goods will go down by seven percentage points for Iran, and by 3.5 points for the EAEU countries. Import duties for farming products will be down by 19 points for Iran and by five points for the EAEU,' Sargsyan said, adding that a full-fledged agreement may be signed in three years.

According to Russia’s acting Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the agreement will give a string impetus to trade and will encourage business activities between the countries.

The Iranian ambassador to Russian has recently said that the talks for the agreement have been in progress for two years.

Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia are the current member states of the union that all in all have a GDP of & 2.2 trillion, $ 3.1 trillion dollars of industrial products, and $ 877 billion trade with non-member countries that equals 7.3% of world export and 3.2% of world import.

source : irna