TEHRAN - The minister in charge of trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has said that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is ready to boost its annual trade with Iran to $30 billion, IRNA reported.

Noting that the draft of the free trade agreement between Iran and the union has been finalized and is ready to be approved and signed, Andrey Slepnev said: “We hope that the free trade agreement of this union with Iran will be signed before the end of 2023.”

“The member states of the Eurasian Union have a serious approach to expanding cooperation with Iran and considering such determination, the agreement will be quickly approved in their parliaments,” he added.

The official said the preferential trade agreement between Iran and the EAEU resulted in the trade between the two sides doubling and it is expected that by signing the free trade agreement the trade between the two sides will be doubled once again.

“The signing of the comprehensive agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Union will provide suitable conditions for mutual access to the markets for both sides,” Slepnev said.

“We know very well that the volume of trade with a large country like Iran is still not very high, and therefore, it seems that targeting 30 billion dollars of annual trade is a good way to develop trade between our countries,” he noted,

The Eurasian Economic Union was established in 2015 at the initiative taken by Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.

Afterward, the Republic of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan joined the Union.

Iran and EAEU reached a preferential trade agreement in 2018 based on which about 862 commodity items are currently subject to preferential tariffs.

The agreement came into effect on October 27, 2019.

EF/MA