Iran, EAEU ink FTA to give boost
to agricultural exports

The head of the agricultural
commission of the Iran Chamber of Cooperatives said the implementation of the
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) inked between Iran and the EAEU member states will
ease Tehran’s access to the $70-billion market of the union.

Arsalan Qassemi pointed to the
signing of the FTA between Iran and EAEU and stated that restrictions and lack
of the launch of free trade between Iran and the union were some of the major
problems facing Iran in boosting trade with those countries.

Qassemi referred to the cruel
sanctions imposed by the Western countries, especially the United States,
against Iran and said that Iran’s import and export target markets were significantly
restricted due to the sanctions.

The implementation of trade
agreements with the EAEU requires providing the necessary infrastructures, he
said, calling on the responsible officials to remove the existing trade
barriers to enhance trade-economic relations with the world, Tasnim reported.

Boosting relations with
neighboring countries in all fields, especially trade and economy, is one of
the main policies of the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi, he stated,
adding that the capacities of other countries should be used optimally to spur
economic activities.

On December 25, 2023, on the
sidelines of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in St. Petersburg, a free
trade agreement was signed between the Eurasian Economic Union’s member states
and Iran.

The Free Trade Agreement was
inked by Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Abbas Aliabadi and
officials of the union on Monday.

Upon the implementation of this
agreement, the tariff rate of 87 percent of trade goods between Iran and EAEU
member states will be minimized to zero level. 

In 2018, Iran and the EAEU inked
a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), which came into effect on October 27,
2019. The two sides later began negotiations to upgrade the PTA to an FTA after
the success of the former.