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EAEU, Iran sign provisional free trade zone agreement

The agreement was inked on the sidelines of an economic forum in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on Thursday

ASTANA, May 17. /TASS/. The Eurasian Economic Union and Iran have signed a provisional free trade zone agreement, a TASS correspondent reported from the site.

The agreement was inked on the sidelines of an economic forum in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on Thursday.

According to chairman of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan, after the agreement comes into effect, its signatories will be spared payment of customs duties.

"The current agreement includes an initial list of goods with lowered or cancelled customs fees upon its enforcement. The agreement covers half of mutual trade," he said, adding that in 2017 trade between the EAEU and Iran reached 2.7 billion US dollars.

The list for the EAEU includes meat and fat-and-oil products, certain types of confectioneries and chocolate, cosmetics, electronic and mechanical equipment. Iran will enjoy tariff preferences on vegetables, fruits, dried fruits and building materials.

"Average import duties for industrial goods will go down by seven percentage points for Iran, and by 3.5 points for the EAEU countries. Import duties for farming products will be down by 19 points for Iran and by five points for the EAEU," Sargsyan said, adding that a full-fledged agreement may be signed in three years.

According to Russia’s acting Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the agreement will give a string impetus to trade and will encourage business activities between the countries.

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