On December 25, on the margins of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting in St. Petersburg, a free trade agreement was signed between the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and its member states, on one hand, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the other.
The EEU unites Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.
The agreement provides for a duty-free trade regime for a wide part of the commodity list — more than 90%.
For Kazakhstan in particular, provision of duty-free trade regime will create favorable conditions for the entry of both agricultural and industrial Kazakhstani goods to the Iranian market. Special attention is paid to the possibilities of guaranteed duty-free supplies of Kazakh grain to Iran within the limits of tariff quotas.
In addition to establishing a preferential trade regime, the agreement regulates such trade aspects as the application of safeguard measures, cooperation on technical barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs cooperation, rules of origin, and dispute settlement.
Moreover, the agreement provides for agreements on ensuring transparency in public procurement, as well as agreements on the development of sectoral cooperation in areas of mutual interest, among which special attention is paid to the transport and logistics sector.
Iran is a large and promising market with a population of more than 85 million people, and also has a significant transit potential with a developed infrastructure of the Persian Gulf. The agreement will be a serious step in the development of the North-South transport corridor, namely, it will create prerequisites for the implementation of major joint projects in various sectors of the economy, increase mutual foreign direct investment, and build up active economic cooperation between the parties to the agreement.
In 2022 the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Iran amounted to $521.4 million, 18.3% higher than in 2021.
