ARMENIA TO CONCLUDE TALKS WITH EU IN EARLY 2015 – DEPUTY MINISTER
13:37 * 25.12.14
A deputy minister of economy says he expects specific outcomes from
the Armenia-EU negotiations, which he believes will be concluded at
the beginning of next year.
According to Garegin Melkonyan, a new round of bilateral format was
prepared earlier in 2014 and finalized in October-November to outline
the future trends of trade-economic cooperation.
At a news conference on Thursday, the official said that the Foreign
Ministry is simultaneously negotiating with the EU to discuss legal,
human rights and foreign policy issues.
He said the discussions, based on the earlier talks over the Deep
and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA), inspire belief that
the country will have a new document with the Union in early 2015.
“Our accentuations mainly focus on the possible extent of maintaining
the negotiated wordings, agreements and cooperation formats. A special
attention is paid to the parts included in DCFTA, but they may at
times conflict with Armenia’s commitment under the EEU [Eurasian
Economic Union],” he noted.
The deputy minister noted particularly that certain paragraphs need
editing and corrections, adding that the new document does not have
provisions envisaging 0% customs fees or specific tax administration
mechanisms.
Melkonyan nonetheless said he hopes that they will manage to preserve
the major part of the previously negotiated agreement.
The meeting was attended by Vardan Ayvazyan, the head of the National
Assembly’s Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, Tatul Manaseryan,
an economist and the director of the analytical center Alternative,
and Gagik Makaryan, the president of the Union of Employers.
From: Baghdasarian