EAEU countries sign full-scale free trade agreement with Iran

The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed a full-scale free trade agreement with Iran, a TASS correspondent reported from the ceremony.

The signing took place as part of a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in St. Petersburg. At the ceremony, the document was signed by the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Mikhail Myasnikovich, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexey Overchuk and Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Abbas Ali-Abadi. The agreement was also signed by representatives of Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

"The agreement officially comes into force from the moment it is ratified by the member states. I think that their parliaments will not delay this process and will carry it out quickly enough," Myasnikovich told reporters after the ceremony. According to him, now the parties should carry out practical work on the formation of mechanisms for the implementation of both trade and investment provisions of the agreement.

"We made calculations: at the current level of development of relations, this will allow saving, first of all, on the payment of customs duties and payments, and here we obtain very serious amounts, which will be saved by both Russian business and Iranian business. Naturally, better opportunities will be created for entering each other’s markets," Overchuk noted. According to Abbass Ali-Abadi, the agreement creates the preconditions to develop not only trade between countries, but also tourism.

The temporary agreement on creation of a free trade zone between the EAEU and Iran was concluded on May 17, 2018, and came into force on October 27, 2019.

The EAEU member states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.