A free trade agreement (FTA) signed between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has been approved by the Senate of Kazakhstan, according to Kazakhstan’s Kazinform news agency.
A long-awaited FTA was signed between Iran and the EAEU on December 25, 2023.
The agreement has to be ratified by the parliaments of all the six parties to the agreement before it can take effect.
The agreement was ratified by Armenian parliament in mid-November and by the Russian State Duma earlier in June.
Under the terms of the agreement, Iran and the five-member bloc will lift tariffs on 87% of the items being exchanged between them.
The rest 13% includes items that each of the six parties consider as sensitive items whose free imports may damage their domestic industry or agriculture.
The Kazinform report cited Senator Lyazzar Rysbekova that bilateral trade between Kazakhstan and Iran reached $303 million in 2023.
Kazakhstan's exports to Iran include, mainly, barley to the amount of $43.7 million, wheat to the amount of $18.1 million, waste obtained during the extraction of other vegetable oils worth $8.8 million, rapeseed worth $5.9 million and other goods amounting to $83 million.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan imports ethylene polymers ($36 million), unglazed ceramic tiles ($14.3 million), dates, figs, pineapples, avocado ($11.8 million) from Iran. The total amount of imports is estimated at $220 million.