Iranian Ambassador announced the imminent signing of an agreement on a free trade zone with the EAEU

Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said that an agreement on a free trade area with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will be signed in the next couple of months.

“We very much hope that this agreement will be signed within the next month or two. I met with the Deputy Prime Minister [России Алексеем] Overchuk, we are making efforts to ensure that this agreement is signed as soon as possible,” said the ambassador (quote according to TASS).

Before signing the agreement, it must be ratified in advance by the parliaments of the countries participating in the union and the parliament of the Islamic republic, Jalali specified.

In May, Deputy Prime Minister Overchuk said he was “closest” to a free trade agreement with Iran than with other countries. Prior to this, Andrey Slepnev, a member of the trade board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), noted that an agreement between the EAEU and the republic could be concluded as early as this year.

Last summer, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law on the ratification of the protocol to the interim agreement leading to the formation of a free trade zone between the EAEU and Iran. The law itself ratified the protocol to the temporary agreement on the creation of such a zone with the republic dated May 17, 2018.

Before its signing in 2018, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan declaredthat the Iranian market is developing dynamically and the EAEU needs to gain a foothold on it in a timely manner. The agreement itself was then signed for four years.