Armenia will launch the dialogue with the European Union over visa liberalization in the first half of 2018, President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview to ARMENIA TV.
“I think in the first half of the next year or before that, although it is a thankless work to make a statement on any timetable, but I think we will launch the dialogue during that period. Here as well there are a lot of issues, and it is a long process. If we work hard, I think, we will reach the final goal in 2-3 years”, the President said.
President Serzh Sargsyan said the new agreement is a separate process, and the visa liberalization is another. According to him, they, of course, most likely are linked with each other, but signing a new agreement doesn’t mean that the visa liberalization process also has launched. “Yes, there was an opinion during the summit that it’s necessary to launch the dialogue on this matter”, the President added.
He also talked about the GSP+ regime with the EU, as well as the opportunities of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed with the Union and the observation that few use the GSP+ regime.
“Firstly, I wouldn’t say that few are using the regime. 40% of our exports is being carried out by this system. Yes, the product types are a lot, if I am not mistaken, we have privileged terms in the EU for 6200 types of products, this means that they undergo customs clearance at 0 or a very low rate. Of course, the agreement creates more favorable conditions, but the important is the production of goods. We should be able to produce many and high-quality competitive goods, and in this case there will be no obstacle for exporters. Today also there is no obstacle, who exports competitive, quality products, he sells that products in the EU market and the EAEU market, as well as in other markets. Therefore, this system is very useful for us, it is this system that enables us to have such volume, 1/3 of trade turnover in the EU demand market”, the President stated.
On November 24 Armenia and the European Union signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Brussels.