The process of Armenia-EU Association agreement includes discussions on 29 sections. They could be discussed in the 8th, 10th, 12th plenary sessions. But during the 10th plenary session which took place last Friday the sides noted that they have 28 sections that are discussed and the 29th section which refers to the Armenia-EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area is not agreed upon yet.
The talks on the 29th section are a quite extensive process, because it refers not only to Armenia’s economy but also to number of technical regulations. Sargis Ghazaryan, a senior research fellow at EuFoA, talked to “First News and Analyses” about EU-Armenia Association agreement.
He noted that the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area will give Armenia the opportunity to have access to the European market, because as for now the products made in Armenia either cannot be imported to Europe or are imported with taxes.
Due to the deep and Comprehensive trade area, the Armenian market will be liberalized. This will give an opportunity to broaden the Armenian market, and the Armenian companies will work in Europe just the same way as the European ones. This has an essential importance for Armenia both economically and socially. Thus in other words Europe is saying: “if you are able to implement special reforms, we will give you a free access to the European market”.
Now there is a process which has two environments: firstly, Armenia becomes more attractive as it is more liberal and also there is an opportunity of exporting Armenian companies to Europe and there is also an advantage connected with the internal economic field in Armenia. Sargis Ghazaryan noted that Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area in Armenia is about the market reforms.
He stressed that this is a hard and comprehensive process but the result is going to be fantastic. Ghazaryan also pointed that Armenia has the advantage of being WTO member.
Naturally the Armenian side expects to finish the talks of this section in 2013. “At this moment I don’t see any obstacle for the Association agreement to be signed right after the negotiations. In Ukraine there was the problem with Timoshenko. In Armenia I don’t see that kind of a problem in any field”, noted Ghazaryan.
According to Sargis Ghazaryan the next step after the Association Agreement will be the candidate country status. “Political association and economic integration to EU are the main objectives”, he noted.
Should be noted that on October 18, in Brussels RA ambassador to EU Avet Adonts and the Director-general of European Commission home affairs, Stefano Manservisi signed a preliminary deal on visa facilitation and readmission between Armenia and the European Union.
