TEHRAN - The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Eurasian and Economic Union (EAEU) are going to sign a long-awaited free trade agreement (FTA) in the coming month and the FTA could go operational in the next Iranian calendar year (begins in late March 2024), an official with Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) said.

Speaking in a press conference held prior to the second EAEU exclusive exhibition on Tuesday, Mohammad-Sadegh Ghannadzadeh said: "Currently, Iran and Eurasia have reached an understanding on the text and list of goods for free trade, and soon in Russia, five EAEU member countries and Iran will sign the agreement, and if approved by the parliament, the FTA will be implemented next year."

"Based on the FTA, 87 percent of goods will be exchanged between Iran and Eurasia with zero tariffs. But there is always a negative list in free trade agreements. In this agreement, 13 percent of our goods are either on the import ban list or their import tariff will not be

zero," he explained.

Iran and EAEU reached a preferential trade agreement (PTA) in 2018 based on which about 862 commodity items are currently subject to preferential tariffs. The agreement came into effect on October 27, 2019.

Following the positive impact of the PTA on the trade exchanges between the two sides, Iran and EAEU started negotiating to upgrade the PTA to an FTA.

Back in July, the minister in charge of trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) said that the EAEU’s cooperation with Iran is actively expanding in various fields, and trade between the two sides has doubled over the past four years.

Andrey Slepnev also said that trade between the union and the Islamic Republic of Iran rose 22 percent in 2022.

The second EAEU exclusive exhibition, which is a platform to showcase the capabilities of the EAEU members and their Iranian counterparts, is scheduled to be held in Tehran from December 4-7.

EF/MA