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ARMENIA LIKELY SIGN DCFTA BY THE END OF THIS YEAR: DEPUTY MINISTER
YEREVAN, April 10. / ARKA /. Armenia is very likely to sign the deep
and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA) agreement with the EU by
the end of the year, according to a deputy economy minister Garegin
Melkonyan.
"If the agreement is not signed by then, Armenia and the EU will be
very close to it at any rate. The sides have reconciled and approved
the bulk of the agreement text. The rest is being negotiated,"
Melkonyan said during the presentation of a book called "Armenia -
EU: Economic Relations", released by the Centre for European Studies
of Yerevan State University.
According to him, the goal for Armenia as a country with a small market
is to make foreign markets more accessible not only to promote sales
of Armenian products but also attract potential investors.
"It is quite a different thing when you are simply a three-million
market country, and when you are a country with an access to EU
markets", he said.
He said Armenia has already signed multilateral free trade agreements
with former Soviet republics. The next goal is to achieve similar trade
relationship with the EU, which is Armenia's major trading partner.
He said a great deal of job is to be done to develop a package of
tariffs to join EU's free trade area, because this transition should
be smooth, visible and predictable, given the fact that Armenia's
revenue from customs duties will decrease in the first period.
He said the next round of talks on Armenia's accession to DCFTA
is scheduled for April 16-17 to be followed by several more rounds
this year.
The book "Armenia - EU: Economic Relations" consists of an analysis
of the macroeconomic environment in Armenia, its foreign trade and
EU's influence on these processes. The analysis is based on data up
to 2011.-0-
From: A. Papazian
YEREVAN, April 10. / ARKA /. Armenia is very likely to sign the deep
and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA) agreement with the EU by
the end of the year, according to a deputy economy minister Garegin
Melkonyan.
"If the agreement is not signed by then, Armenia and the EU will be
very close to it at any rate. The sides have reconciled and approved
the bulk of the agreement text. The rest is being negotiated,"
Melkonyan said during the presentation of a book called "Armenia -
EU: Economic Relations", released by the Centre for European Studies
of Yerevan State University.
According to him, the goal for Armenia as a country with a small market
is to make foreign markets more accessible not only to promote sales
of Armenian products but also attract potential investors.
"It is quite a different thing when you are simply a three-million
market country, and when you are a country with an access to EU
markets", he said.
He said Armenia has already signed multilateral free trade agreements
with former Soviet republics. The next goal is to achieve similar trade
relationship with the EU, which is Armenia's major trading partner.
He said a great deal of job is to be done to develop a package of
tariffs to join EU's free trade area, because this transition should
be smooth, visible and predictable, given the fact that Armenia's
revenue from customs duties will decrease in the first period.
He said the next round of talks on Armenia's accession to DCFTA
is scheduled for April 16-17 to be followed by several more rounds
this year.
The book "Armenia - EU: Economic Relations" consists of an analysis
of the macroeconomic environment in Armenia, its foreign trade and
EU's influence on these processes. The analysis is based on data up
to 2011.-0-
From: A. Papazian