Armenia has big hopes for the CIS free trade zone agreement, Gagik Kocharyan, head of the trade and market regulation section of the Armenian Ministry of Economy, said at the Yerevan-Moscow-Kiev-Kishinev-Astana video conference, News Armenia reports.
The deal was signed by the Council of CIS heads in Saint-Petersburg on October 18. Formation of the agreement took 10 years. All CIS states, except Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan signed it. But they may join it by the end of 2011.
The deal allows states to cooperate according to norms of the WTO. Armenia benefits from fixed trade opportunities from the agreement, Kocharyan said. The document has 90-95 types of goods for trade for export undergoing customs procedures, compared with 350 Russia’s.
Kocharyan noted that the main problem is custom fees, which will be lifted in 6 months.
Concerning standardization of goods, Armenia is negotiating free trade with the EU, with parallel infrastructure to support high quality standards.
