On March 25, 021, the third session of the Partnership Committee in Trade Configuration between the Republic of Armenia and European Union was held online. From the Armenian side the session was chaired by the RA Deputy Minister of Economy Varos Simonyan, and from the European Union it was chaired by Marco Düerkop, the Deputy Head of the Directorate-General for Trade of the European Commission. The head of the EU delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Victorin made an opening speech at the session.

During the session the parties discussed the measures taken within the framework of cooperation pursuant to the section of Trade and trade-related issues of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive Extended Partnership Agreement, as well as relevant roadmaps in the following areas: commodity trade, customs, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, services trade, incorporation and e-commerce, current payments and capital’s movement, intellectual property, public procurement, trade and sustainable development, competition, state-owned enterprises, transparency, dispute settlement.

Issues related to the process of implementation of the provisions on the geographical indication of “Cognac” pursuant to Article 237 of the Agreement were also presented and discussed along with further works envisaged in this direction, as well as the results of the March 24 meeting of the RA-EU Sub-Committee on Geographical Indications, and the agreements reached were presented and discussed.

Issues related to the process of implementation of the provisions on "Cognac" geographical indication stipulated in Article 237 of the Agreement were presented, discussed and further works envisaged in that direction, as well as the results of the March 24 meeting of the RA-EU Geographical Indications Subcommittee were presented along with the agreements reached.

The agenda of the session also included issues related to current processes in the field of trade and investment, monitoring carried out by the EU within the framework of the “GSP+” preferential trade regime, as well as other issues of bilateral cooperation between Armenia and the EU.

At the end of the session, Operational Resolutions were approved, which were formulated on the agenda items discussed during the meeting.

Additional information

On November 24, 2017, the “Comprehensive Extended Partnership Agreement” (Agreement) was signed between the Republic of Armenia and the European Union, the main provisions of which temporarily entered into force on June 1, 2018. The Agreement fully entered into force on March 1, 2021․ A Partnership Committee has been set up pursuant to Article 363 of the Agreement. A session of the Partnership Committee in Trade Configuration shall be held at least once a year, on the basis of a preliminary bilateral agreement, to discuss matters relating to Part VI of the Agreement (Trade and trade-related issues).