The Republic of Armenia and the United States today held their third meeting under the RA-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Trade and Investment Council. ‎ The Republic of Armenia and the United States affirmed their interest in growing bilateral trade and investment‎ between them, committing to continue work on outstanding bilateral issues.   

The meeting, chaired by Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia Varos Simonyan and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative L. Daniel Mullaney, included, Ambassadors of two countries, as well as  for Armenia, officials from  Central Bank of Armenia, the Ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Labor and Social Affairs, Health and Labor Inspectorate and, for the United States, officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The Republic of Armenia and United States discussed the importance of addressing key bilateral issues, including, labor, general system of preferences, technical barriers to trade, Sanitary and Phytosanitary requirements related to import regulations to US, negotiations in the framework of WTO, cooperation in the fields of commercial diplomacy, post-COVID possible cooperation in different sectors, etc.

Background

The Republic of Armenia and the United States signed  TIFA in May 2015.

According to Armenian official statistics trade turnover of the Republic of Armenia with United States of America in 2019 amounted 334.23 mln USD which increased by 47.8% , in 2018 it amounted 226.06 mln USD. In 2019 export to US from Armenia amounted 53.91 mln USD, which increased by 13.1%, in 2018 it was 47.68 mln USD. In 2019 import from US to Armenia by country of origin amounted 280.32 mln USD, which increased by 57.1%. In 2018 it was 178.39mln USD, ranking the United States among the top 10 importing countries to Armenia in 2019.

Armenia’s imports from the United States in 2019 included mainly machinery and equipment, vehicles, meat and edible offal of poultry, chemical products, and textiles. Armenia's primary export items to the U.S. were precious stones and metals (including aluminum foil), textiles, and prepared food products.