Tehran, Iran, May 22
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
Head of Iran-Kazakhstan Joint Business Council Amir Abedi said a recent preferential trade agreement (PTA) between Tehran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) trade bloc could help the Islamic Republic boost its business transactions with Eurasian states.
The agreement could be a good opportunity for Iran to boost the volume of its trade with the Eurasian Economic Union, Abedi told the Trend on May 22.
More business and investment opportunities are expected to be created for all sides of the agreement, he further said, adding, “We have now this opportunity to trade with members of this union with a population of 180 million”.
The PTA can help Iranian businesspeople remove their tariff barriers with the Eurasian states and raise their trade volume with them, Abedi said.
“This (the deal) is a win-win for everyone,” he said.
The economic bloc also signed an interim trade deal with Iran during talks on May 17 in the Kazakh capital of Astana, Kazakh sources said.
The deal comes as the US is snapping economic sanctions on the country back into place following its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran is now engaged in extensive talks with the five remaining signatories to the JCPOA -Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain - to decide about the future of the nuclear deal.
The EEU is comprised of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an international organization created with the aim of encouraging regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services and people within the union.
The bloc was established in 2015, after it superseded the Eurasian Economic Community that functioned from 2000 to 2014. The union has an integrated single market of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over $4 trillion.
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