EC FACT-FINDING TRIP HERALDS FIRST STEPS TOWARDS STRONGER TRADE RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA
armradio.am
17.02.2009 15:08
A European Commission’s experts team led by Director Ms Ewa Synowiec
from Directorate General for Trade will carry out a fact-finding
mission to Yerevan on 18-19 February. This mission will help in
mapping out a preparatory process for possible future negotiations of
an ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union
(EU) and Armenia. Deeper economic ties are a key element in the
EU’s Neighbourhood Policy and the new Eastern Partnership initiative
launched last December.
The European Commission’s team will hold 2 days of meetings at both
technical and senior level with Armenian officials. These discussions
should enable the European Commission to identify priorities for
reforms which would help Armenia’s prepare itself for the launch of
negotiations of a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement with
the EU.
Such an FTA is an ambitious project. It would considerably upgrade
the present trade ties by offering both sides preferential access
to each other’s markets, supporting economic reforms in Armenia and
offering new opportunities for Armenian businesses. Implementing the
recommendations will help Armenia to enjoy the benefits of an agreement
more quickly. The EU is committed to continuing to assist Armenia in
its reform work, including by providing technical assistance.
A possible future FTA between the EU and Armenia which is one of
the most important elements of the Eastern Partnership would lead
to Armenia’s genuine integration with the EU in the area of trade
and economy, thus bringing in the medium and longer term economic
benefits to the Armenian companies and consumers. Concretely, an
ambitious bilateral FTA would not only gradually remove the remaining
tariffs in the bilateral trade in goods, but also provide for a deep
liberalisation of provision of services, flow of investments, and
anchor Armenia’s systemic reforms through gradual approximation of
her legislation and practices with the relevant EU law and procedures.
To this end the Armenian Government has been invited to concentrate
its efforts on proper implementation and enforcement of adopted law
and strengthening institutional capacity. This would have a positive
impact on transparency and predictability of Armenia’s legislative
framework and hence create a business friendly environment for domestic
companies and foreign investors and as a result contribute to the
economic growth, diversification of the economy and creation of jobs.
The independent feasibility study on a possible future EU-Armenia
FTA finalised in May 2008 has concluded that Armenia has made some
progress in creating these conditions, but additional efforts are
necessary. Therefore at this stage, the EU and Armenia are not yet
negotiating an FTA, but are aiming at streamlining a process=2 0towards
creating conditions for preparing respective negotiating mandates by
both sides and opening such negotiations in the future. In order to
accelerate this preparatory process the European Commission has decided
to carry-out a large fact-finding mission to Armenia. This mission
will in particular aim at assessing which priority reform steps the
Armenian authorities should take and how the EU could assist them in
their efforts, including by means of specific technical assistance
projects. This mission will build on the positive experience of the
Commission’s customs mission to Armenia carried out last July.
As regards the EU technical assistance, it is in particular worth
noting that the instruments of Twinning, TAIEX and SIGMA, that proved
their pertinence in addressing regulatory approximation issues in case
of the new EU Member States, are available to Armenia. Furthermore,
the EU will provide a high level adviser to the Minister of Economy,
within the new EU advisory Group to be deployed in various Armenian
institutions, to provide guidance on the preparatory process for a
possible future bilateral FTA.