Initialing Association Agreement impossible without DCFTA – Armenian MP

The statement by the European Commission that an Association Agreement and a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (AA/DCFTA) “could be compatible with economic cooperation with the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States” does not at all mean that Armenia can join the Customs Union, and the European Union (EU) will consider such “compatibility” - implementing the “both…and” policy and initialing AA/DCFTA - possible, Armenian Parliament member Alexander Arzumanyan told journalists on Wednesday.
 
“This is ruled out. Just visit the websites and see what the Association Agreement is. For the EU it means establishing the depth of trade relations. Depending on the level of political relations, it may be customs unions, free trade areas and, in our case, a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement,” he said.

“Tariff cooperation is possible as well. It is a package. Roughly speaking, the Association Agreement is a preamble and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement is paragraphs. Like any other agreement you cannot sign the preamble alone,” he added.

Arzumanyan does not object to trade relations and economic cooperation with other countries. During three-year-and-a-half negotiations with the EU Armenia’s Parliament has ratified a free trade agreement between the CIS members, and the two processes have not been “incompatible.”

The Rules of any free trade zone cannot run counter to the World Trade Organization (WTO) standards.

“There are different areas. There may be a clash of interests,” Arzumanyan said.

“Armenia has a number of neighbors. It cannot sever its trade and economic ties with Iran, which has nothing in common with the EU. But these ties must not come into conflict with Armenia’s commitments,” he said. The EU has never told Armenia to sever ties with Russia.

No political force in Armenia is raising the issue of Armenia seceding from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

“We are well aware of the importance of Nagorno-Karabakh’s security in the context of bilateral relations. We only say that Armenia has for twenty years been an independent state and cannot be anyone’s vassal. And Armenia’s president does not have to visit any state’s capital to be forced to sign anything,” Arzumanyan said.