Wednesday, Armenian Lawyers Go On Strike . Artak Hambardzumian . Karlen Aslanian Armenia - Lawyers hold a roundtable discussion in Yerevan, 13Sep2017. More 180 Armenian lawyers went on strike on Wednesday to protest against controversial security checks on attorneys representing radical opposition members in three ongoing trials. The defense lawyers have been required to walk through metal detectors and have their bags checked before entering courtrooms. They say this procedure amounts to searches not allowed by Armenian law. Many of them have refused to attend court hearings in the trials of Zhirayr Sefilian, the jailed leader of the Founding Parliament movement, and his three dozen loyalists who seized a police station in Yerevan last year. "We hope that this one-day protest will be enough for state bodies to look into the problem more thoroughly and find a solution acceptable to everyone," one of the protesting lawyers, Tigran Atanesian, said at a roundtable discussion in Yerevan. Or else, he warned, they will continue to fight against the practice. Armenia's Judicial Department insists that the security "inspections" do not constitute searches and are therefore legal. The leadership of the Chamber of Advocates, the national bar association, has sided with the department. The chamber's newly reelected chairman, Ara Zohrabian, reaffirmed that position when he spoke during the discussion. "When nobody touches a lawyer's bag there can be no talk of a search," he said. Mushegh Shushanian, one of the lawyers representing the arrested opposition gunmen, denounced that stance. "One has the impression that the chairman of the Chamber of Advocates is tasked with campaigning against independent lawyers," Shushanian charged. The one-day strike disrupted the latest hearing in one of the two trials of the gunmen. It was scheduled for Wednesday. The presiding judge, Artush Gabrielian, cited the absence of 15 lawyers who joined the strike. "The court does not regard as positive the lawyers' failure to attend today's hearing because they were obliged to show up," Gabrielian said, adding that he could take fresh disciplinary action against them. Armenia Encouraged To Boost Exports To U.S. . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Armenian businesspeople are briefed on ways of capitalizing on Armenia's mostly tariff-free access to the U.S. market, Yerevan, 13Sep2017. A senior U.S. official encouraged Armenian businesspeople to take greater advantage of Armenia's mostly tariff-free access to the U.S. market during a visit to Yerevan on Wednesday. Assistant Trade Representative Ed Gresser advised them on the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) at a meeting organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia (AmCham) and the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan. Armenia is among 129 countries and territories included in the GSP program, which fully or partly exempts many goods manufactured by them from U.S import duties. Despite these trade preferences, Armenian exports to the United States have been quite modest to date. According to official statistics, Armenian companies exported only about $39 million worth of goods -- mostly aluminum foil, jewelry items and some foodstuffs -- to the U.S. last year. Those exported jumped by 62 percent year on year, to almost $35 million, in the first seven months of 2017.Sixty percent of them were covered by the GSP. Gresser said that the preferential trade regime gives Armenian exporters a significant competitive edge in the United States. "No country in the European Union is eligible for GSP," he said. "Russia is not in the GSP system, China is not in the GSP system, Iran is not in the GSP system." "So when buyers are choosing between Armenia products and those of some neighboring countries or those of some very large exporters, the savings GSP offers can be a pretty compelling argument for buying the Armenian product," argued the U.S. official. Armenia is already the world's fourth largest exporter of cherry jam to the U.S., he said. "One of my top priorities as ambassador for the last two years has been to improve economic ties and trade between Armenia and the United States," Richard Mills, the U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, told reporters after the AmCham meeting. "That's why I am very happy to be welcoming to Yerevan this week two senior members from the United States Trade Representative's office." "These two visitors are here to talk about the potential for expanding Armenia's business community's use of the Generalized System of Preferences that the United States has in place," he said. The U.E. Embassy and the Armenian Ministry of Economy already organized a seminar in March 2016 for Armenian manufacturing firms interested in capitalizing on the GSP. Another senior official from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) was on hand to present business opportunities stemming from the trade scheme and legal procedures for qualifying for it. Gresser met on Tuesday with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Deputy Economy Minister Garegin Melkonian. Official Armenian sources said the talks focused not only on GSP-related issues but also broader commercial ties between the two nations. In particular, the two sides discussed preparations for a second session of the U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Council. The council was set up in line with the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) signed by U.S. and Armenian officials in Washington in May 2015. It is tasked with addressing obstacles to bilateral trade. Karapetian Defends Track Record . Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian speaks in the National Assembly in Yerevan, 13Sep2017. Prime Minister Karen Karapetian insisted on Wednesday that the macroeconomic situation in Armenia has improved during his one-year tenure. Karapetian pointed to faster economic growth recorded this year when he was asked about the impact of his government's policies on the lives of ordinary citizens during a question-and-answer session in the Armenian parliament. "As for how our fellow citizens feel, we have presented you with macroeconomic indicators that are -- I'm sorry if this sound immodest -- are the best in the region, in the Eurasian Economic Union and the CIS," he said, answering a question from a deputy from President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). "Does that mean that we have solved all our problems? Of course not, because we have practically no people who don't want to improve the quality of their life. So it's not that we will have lived up to everyone's expectations within a year." "But I think that the overall trend, the direction in which we are moving satisfies us to a certain extent," added Karapetian. Karapetian was tasked with easing socioeconomic hardship in the country when Sarkisian appointed him as prime minister in September last year. He pledged to do so through reforms that would improve the domestic business environment and attract more foreign investment in the struggling Armenian economy. According official statistics, economic growth accelerated from 0.2 percent in 2016 to around 5 percent in the first half of this year. Also, the government's tax revenue has risen by almost 7 percent in the past year. Opposition politicians and other critics of the government dismiss these figures, saying that they have had no real tangible impact on the population. They also remain highly skeptical about Karapetian's reform pledges. Karapetian has repeatedly indicated his desire to stay on as prime minister after Sarkisian serves to his final presidential term in April. The president has not yet clarified whether he plans to become prime minister or replace Karapetian with someone else. Press Review "Zhoghovurd" blasts what it sees as a thuggish behavior of some members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) at Tuesday's session of Yerevan's municipal council. "Instead of holding debates with their opposition colleagues, they were making offensive remarks," the paper says. It says Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian, who chaired the session, did not even attempt to rein in them, meaning that he tacitly supported them. "This is nothing but a disgrace," it says. "Hraparak" says that when Karen Karapetian took over as prime minister a year ago he made a grim assessment of the economic situation in Armenia. "It was evident that Karapetian was invited to get the country's economic out of a pit," writes the paper. "A pit into which it was plunged by the HHK, its governments and their policies." It claims that President Serzh Sarkisian and his entourage no longer allow him to "single-handedly make decisions on important issues, appoint or fire high-ranking officials." "Even on his political future nothing explicit is being said right now, unlike in the initial period of his tenure," it says. "Haykakan Zhamanak" ridicules the minuscule volume of trade between Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, a fellow member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Imports of Kyrgyz goods to Armenia stood at less than $10,000 in the first half of this year, official data shows. "It must be noted that Armenia's exports to Kyrgyzstan are much greater: about $424,000," the paper says. (Lilit Harutiunian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org