Israel, Iran to join Russian-led free trade agreement

The two nations will sign their own free-trade accords with the bloc, meaning the adversaries will not trade freely with one another.

By JNS.org

Along with Iran, Israel is expected to sign a free-trade deal with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU, in the near future, according to officials in Jerusalem and Moscow.

However, Israel and Iran will sign their own respective free-trade accord with the bloc, meaning that the adversaries could not trade freely with one another.

“The negotiations with the EAEU were launched in Moscow in April 2018, following positive results of a comprehensive Joint Feasibility Study conducted by the parties,” a spokesperson for the Economy Ministry told The Times of Israel on Monday.

“The agreement will cover various aspects of trade in goods, such as rules of origin, customs cooperation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, e-commerce, dispute settlement and others,” added the spokesperson.

Mehdi Sanaei, Iran’s ambassador to Russia, said on Friday that he sees Tehran ratifying the deal with the EAEU “in the near future,” reported Iran’s Mehr news agency.

“The agreement is very important for Iran … because it opens the gates to a big market for our country, and also opens the Iranian market to Russia and northern countries,” he said.

Russia’s First Deputy Minister of Industry Sergey Tsyb said that along with Israel and Iran, the EAEU will sign similar agreements “in the near future” with Egypt, India and Singapore.