Iran and EAEU Sign 3-Year Roadmap to Implement Free Trade Agreement

Iran and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) have signed a roadmap outlining how they will implement the free trade deal that came into effect in May.

The document was signed in Moscow on Wednesday by Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Atabak and EAEU’s executive body’s Minister in Charge of Trade Andrey Slepnev, The Caspian Post reports citing Iranian media.

The signing of the three-year roadmap had come after Iran and the EAEU held a first committee meeting on the implementation of their free trade deal.

Atabak said after signing the roadmap that the document would set up a framework for trade and economic cooperation between Iran and the EAEU until 2028.

He said the roadmap and other documents planned to be signed between the two sides would elevate the level of bilateral cooperation on issues like halal trade, logistics, transportation, and customs operations.

Russia’s Tass news agency quoted Slepnev as describing the roadmap as “a comprehensive document” that covers issues such as transport logistics and a North-South transport corridor that passes through Iran and Russia.

“We agreed on the formation of green customs corridors, digitalization, the transition to electronic transit, something that opens up opportunities for our companies to expedite deliveries,” Slepnev said.

The free trade deal between Iran and the EAEU, which was signed in December 2023, allows Iran to enjoy tariff-free exports on nearly 87 percent of its trade with members of the bloc, namely Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.

Iran and the EAEU were previously in a preferential trade arrangement based on a deal signed in June 2017 in Armenia.

Iran also signed an agreement in December last year during an EAEU Supreme Council meeting in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to become an observer member of the bloc.