Page 7 - MEOG Week 39
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MEOG FInanCe & InVestment MEOG
Potential for building up EEU trade with South Asia “very significant”
Iran
OFFICIALS should be tasked with developing effective trade routes between member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and India, Pakistan and other nations of South Asia via Iran, chairman of EEU regulatory body Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has said, IRNA reported on September 28.
Tigran Sargsyan called for the establishment of a working group to explore how infrastruc- ture in Iran can be integrated into trade routes open to EEU members Russia, Belarus, Kazakh- stan Kyrgyzstan and Armenia to open up trade potential with South Asia.
Generated trade from subsequent initiatives couldbe“verysignificant”,headded.
After meeting an Iranian trade and business delegation, he added that sub-working groups in various fields – especially in banking, finance, tradeandcustoms–wouldbeneeded.
Iran and the EEU are on the verge of launch- ing a temporary free trade zone agreement.
Sargsyan also reportedly talked about how using national currencies in bilateral trade,
staying away from the dollar, is effective in help- ing trading parties avoid US sanctions.
He called for expert-level economic groups to study and advance the practice for the EEU.
India has a long-term lease on Iran’s only oce- anic port, Chabahar, and is developing it in an agreement with Tehran.
The development of Chabahar is even exempted from US sanctions given its potential importance to giving war-torn Afghanistan a badly needed economic lift.
Meanwhile, work is proceeding on creating the International North-South Transport Cor- ridor (INSTC), a 7,200-kilometre, multimodal project that will see India connected to north- ern Europe via a corridor running through Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was on September29dueinYerevanforanEEUsummit in the Armenian capital.
He was set to hold talks with Armenian coun- terpart Nikol Pashinian as well as other leaders of EEU countries.
Week 39 01•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7
