Monday, November 13 2017 16:09

ArmInfo.The prospect of signing the Armenia-EU comprehensive and expanded partnership agreement is of concern to the Chairman of the Union of Domestic  Producers of Armenia Vazgen Safaryan. "While Turkey is moving towards  Russia, Armenia is looking towards the EU, a similar situation was  observed in 1918-1920, as a result of which the Armenians lost  Nakhijevan and the Kars region," he told journalists on November 13.

The head of the Union reminded that the Association Agreement with  the EU was going to be signed by Armenia in 2013. "However, Armenian  President Serzh Sargsyan, proceeding from the consideration that it  is impossible to solve security issues within the framework of one  system - the CSTO, and the economic ones - the EU, decided to  integrate into the Eurasian Union," Safaryan said, saying that before  the step towards the EU, for Armenia, which has the problem of the  unresolved Karabakh conflict, is necessary to consider very seriously  all the pros and cons."

According to Safaryan, unlike the year 2013, today the political  realities are different. "If earlier the EU insisted on the position  of "or, or" at this stage, it apparently revised its point of view,  and the RA authorities introduced a new formula for interaction with  the structure on the basis of the "and, and" principle, he stressed.

The expert will not dare to say that joining the Agreement for the  Armenian economy will provide positive changes, as he sees no  positive trends in the expansion of the range and volumes of the  EU-exported products. In the Eurasian Union, as Safaryan noted,  Armenia exports canned, agricultural and alcoholic products, to the  EU countries - metal raw materials. To this day, according to him, it  was profitable for Armenia to be part of the EAE also in the sense  that the majority of citizens and their relatives, while working in  the countries of the Union, provided inflow of transfers to the  republic, due to which it was possible to mitigate the negative  balance of the foreign trade balance of the country. "Already today,  Armenia has provided exports at the level of $ 1.7 billion. By the  end of the year, the figure will exceed $ 2 billion, thus fixing an  annual increase of 20-21%," he said. At the same time, the expert  believes that the main giants of the EU will not want Armenia to  become a developed, industrial country, but would like to see only a  raw material application of the EU in her.

According to the expert, if in the IT sphere Armenia can interest  European partners, in terms of export of agricultural products the  republic is not able to compete with European producers for the  simple reason that 40% of agricultural production of these countries  is subsidized by the states. Nevertheless, as the expert noted,  Armenia, as a result of the expected agreement, can become a link for  many countries. "In 1997, Russia proposed the creation of a free  trade zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok, ensuring the free movement of  goods, capital, services and labor." They returned to the topic last  year in St. Petersburg at an economic forum, noting concern over its  implementation in view of sanctions. I think in this context Armenia  can become a platform for Russia, the EU, Ukraine and Iran," Safaryan  said.

The Armenia-EU comprehensive and expanded partnership agreement is  intended to replace the Association Agreement, which was agreed by  Yerevan and Brussels, but they were not initialed, since in September  2013 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan unexpectedly for many  announced Armenia's decision to participate in the Eurasian  integration, which, in fact, meant a disruption of the signing of the  Association Agreement. Many analysts then suggested that the reason  for the sharp change was the strong pressure from Moscow. However,  official Yerevan did not admit this.