News

18.01.2022

EAEU and Ethiopia discussed plans for developing cooperation in 2022

This issue became a key one during the working meeting between Goar Barseghyan, Director of the Eurasian Economic Commission's Integration Development Department, and Alemayehu Tegenu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, held on January 17 at the EEC’s headquarters.

"Ethiopia is our traditional trading partner in Africa. The trade turnover between the EAEU Member States and Ethiopia increased 4.7 times in January-October 2021 compared to the level of the same period in 2020. This is of particular importance amid the plans to double the trade turnover with the continent’s countries announced during the Russia-Africa Summit in 2019", Goar Barseghyan stated, highly appreciating the dynamics of interaction with the Ethiopian side
In turn, the Ambassador has noted that such goods from Ethiopia as flowers, textiles, coffee, beans are traditionally in demand and competitive in the EAEU market. Besides, he expressed himself in favor of intensifying dialogue with all the Union States with due regard to the opportunities offered by the EAEU single market.

The dialog partners stressed the importance of involving the business community in the dialogue between the EEC and Ethiopia, including for raising their awareness of the possibilities of using the EAEU common system of tariff preferences for developing and least developed countries as well as certain aspects of supranational regulation within the EAEU.

According to Goar Barseghyan, there is a strong potential for increasing interaction between the EAEU and the African Union of which Ethiopia is one of the members. A draft cooperation program between the EEC and the African Union has been prepared to unlock this potential.

During the meeting, the sides also expressed their readiness to continue interaction at major international discussion platforms such as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Eurasian Economic Forum, the Russia-Africa Summit and others.

For reference

Ethiopia is among the countries of the African Union - an international intergovernmental organization that unites 55 African States with a population of about 1 billion people. The African Union Commission (AUC) is its competent authority located in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Memorandum of Understanding between the EEC and the African Union in the field of economic cooperation was signed during the first Russia-Africa Summit held on October 24, 2019. A round table and the session "EAEU-Africa: trends and prospects for developing integration processes and cooperation" were held involving heads of regional organizations of Africa.