EEC expects to make substantial progress in free trade area talks with Indonesia in 2024, forecasting trading growth of at least 50%
MOSCOW. Dec 21 (Interfax) - The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) expects to make significant progress in negotiations on a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Indonesia in 2024, which will allow to increase trade by 1.5 times in the future, EEC Trade Minister Andrei Slepnev said.
"We estimate that with the elimination of duties between the EAEU countries and Indonesia, trade can grow compared to our current figures by somewhere around 50% at least," he said at a briefing on Thursday, noting that both sides intend to hold negotiations "promptly and efficiently" and reach a result in 2024.
"We expect that the baseline agreement will allow us to improve positions traditionally in agricultural goods, such as grain crops, and other food products: dairy products, meat. For industrial goods, of course, we expect to improve positions on coal, chemicals, paper, metals, petroleum products, vehicles and their parts, especially specialized ones," the EEC minister said.
The agreement envisages deliveries from Indonesia of supplies of oils, food products, industrial products (electrical equipment, transportation equipment, electronics, clothing, textiles, chemicals, mineral products).
The Supreme Eurasian Economic Council made the decision to begin negotiations with Indonesia in May 2022. During 2023, the parties held three rounds of negotiations. In December, the EEC reported that the trade turnover of EAEU states with Indonesia has doubled over the past two years. It was reported to be $3.8 billion in 2021, up 42% from 2020.
Slepnev also said that negotiations on a free trade area (FTA) with Egypt are expected to be finalized in 2024. "I hope that next year we will be able to finalize with Egypt and reach the signing of this agreement. It is really ambitious. In it 95% plus [of commodities are subject to ] zero duties. We are also ready to see a significant volume of Egyptian products on our market - both agricultural products traditionally within the framework of large quotas, and industrial products. As for the industrial group, we are in favor of mutual zeroing of all goods," he said regarding the details of the negotiations.
Negotiations on an FTA with the UAE are in the pre-final stage. In the future, according to Slepnev, this agreement may become a benchmark for similar negotiations with other Gulf countries.
Among nations with which negotiations on free trade may be initiated in the near future, the EEC Minister pointed to India ("we hope that the Indian track will 'being moving', now it is not in a very active state"), Mongolia, African countries and, in the future, the countries of Latin America.