Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari has said that a long-awaited free trade agreement (FTA) is to be signed between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on December 25.
Safari made the remarks on Tuesday while Mirhadi Seyyedi, a senior advisor at the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO), had said late in October that an FTA between Iran and the five-member club was expected to be signed by the end of 2023.
Mohammad Sadeq Ghannadzadeh, another senior TPO official, said a month later that the FTA will then need to be ratified in the parliaments of all the parties which he believed will last until March 2024 for the agreement to come into effect.
Underlining the significance of trade with EAEU, the official said that there is a potential for a $30 billion trade with the bloc.
He, however, said that reaching such a target would require preparing the necessary infrastructure and transit facilities.