MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2023) The negotiations on creating a free trade area between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are at the final stage, most of the issues have been agreed upon, Russian Ambassador in Tehran Alexey Dedov said in an interview with Sputnik.
"The issue of mutual access to the market of certain categories of agricultural products, which is currently under discussion between the parties, remains unresolved," Dedov said, adding that the negotiations on the free trade agreement are at the final stage.
He noted that at the end of the negotiations, the agreement is subject to approval by the governments of the EAEU countries and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.
"Despite the fact that these are quite time-consuming procedures, given the importance of cooperation with Iran, we can expect that the parties will be interested in carrying them out as soon as possible," the ambassador added.
The diplomat also said that thanks to the temporary agreement leading to the creation of a free trade area, Tehran has significantly increased the supply of its agricultural products to the EAEU countries.
On January 19, during the visit of the EAEU commissioner for trade Andrey Slepnev to Tehran, the two sides signed a memorandum on free trade. Slepnev said that the parties were seeking to scrap most tariffs and launch joint projects in such spheres as transport, industry, food production and finance. It will potentially create jobs in both Iran and the EAEU and advance technological innovation, he said.
The EAEU is an economic union and an integrated single market of five post-Soviet countries � Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. The Supreme Economic Council is the union's supreme body, which includes the heads of the EAEU member countries. The main task of the council is to foster support for the operation and development of the EAEU and draft proposals for economic integration with other countries.
