YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. During the second session of the Armenia-US Council on Trade and Investments in Washington D.C., the sides affirmed that the most important issue in the fields of trade and investments is to boost the existing cooperation, Hovhannes Azizyan – Armenia’s deputy minister of economic development and investments, told Armenpress. He said during the session the sides discussed and reached different agreements on the issues relating to the technical obstacles of trade, customs cooperation, sanitary and phytosanitery norms, intellectual property and labor rights, GSP and investments.

“Overall, it was quite a productive discussion, and the sides are committed to take consecutive steps that will contribute to diversification and expansion of our bilateral trade. Based on the agreements reached we must develop an action plan and have a major work to do jointly”, the deputy minister noted.

According to the official, the sides stated that a progress was recorded in the field of trade in 2017, but it is not enough taking into account the existing potential. The US and Armenian sides agreed to make an exchange of information on current procedures and make the mutual trade regulations more available through which Armenia’s investment field will become more favorable and predictable for the American investors.

“During the session we presented the current procedures on the trade’s technical regulations field, also conditioned with Armenia’s membership to the EAEU. We have presented their development trends, and the same was done by the American side. We have agreed to thoroughly inform each other about the current regulations and understand in which spheres we can create more available and understandable field for the business, for instance, in the technical regulation and standardization field”, the deputy minister said, adding that the overall vision is to provide assistance to small and medium business with all possible measures so that they will be able to more easily make export.

Hovhannes Azizyan said from the perspective of export from Armenia to the US, the fresh agricultural goods and reprocessed products are the most important. “There is a demand, for instance, for canned food, fresh agricultural products, drinks (wine, brandy). If we are able to jointly carry out a work that will further facilitate the current procedures for our exporters, additional opportunities will be created for SMEs”, the deputy minister noted.

The sides also reached an agreement on cooperation between the customs authorities through exchange of information.

As for the improvement of the investment environment, issues relating to the protection of intellectual property were discussed.

English –translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan