Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Michael Kambeck: free trade agreement with Armenia important to EU

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Michael Kambeck: free trade agreement with Armenia important to EU

    Michael Kambeck: free trade agreement with Armenia important to EU

    September 24, 2011 - 09:05 AMT


    PanARMENIAN.Net - The Warsaw-hosted Eastern Partnership summit is a
    good signal for Armenia in terms of visa facilitation and free trade
    agreement negotiations with EU, according to the Secretary General of
    European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) non-governmental organisation.

    As Dr. Michael Kambeck stated in a conversation with a PanARMENIAN.Net
    reporter, that although long overdue, negotiations for visa
    facilitation are a step to visa free regime.

    `In Warsaw, the negotiating parties will outline the roadmap for Deep
    and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. I view it as a positive sign,
    capable of changing so many things, including an enormous amount of
    business laws. The whole way the market functions will be much more
    organized according to European standards. I think this project is
    really exciting and Armenia deserves it; it will be really good for
    Armenia and also Europe.'

    When asked to describe the advantages cooperation with Armenia will
    pose to Europe, Dr. Kambeck explained, `Armenia is a small country,
    but its not the size of the market that matters here; it's a so-called
    bridge market, from Armenia you can go to lots of other markets, which
    otherwise are much more difficult to explore.'

    `As to opinion that Armenia-EU cooperation might be directed against
    Russia, or speaking against being a strategic ally with Russia and be
    economic partner of the EU, quite frankly, Russia and the EU could
    have had their free trade agreements a long time ago. They're just too
    big to agree on everything, and they will not manage for quite some
    time. And they don't need it so much because each one is big enough in
    itself. Since this is going to take an endless amount of time, till
    Russia and the EU themselves can do this, why not go through Armenia.
    People speak the language, they have the contacts, they know how to do
    this, but they'll do it according to new standards and they will be
    the bridge for European business and also for Russians to go into
    Europe. So its good for everyone and in the middle sits Armenia. So
    there's nobody with disadvantages, everyone profits. That's why I
    think it's an exciting project.'

    Commenting on the monopoly in Armenia, Dr. Kambeck characterized it as
    one of the challenges of implementation of free trade agreement with
    the country.

    `However, if you look at the way the Armenian market is structured
    today, and how it was structured 5, 10 years ago, you'll see a certain
    shift. I think, Armenian general market will move away from monopolies
    anyway, because even the monopolist has an interest in that, having a
    chance to make more money if the general market becomes more solid and
    grows more. If he keeps the whole market for himself, this market can
    never grow beyond; meaning it's better to have a strong market share
    in a big growing market than a 100% market share in a small market
    which doesn't grow any further. This is why even the so-called
    oligarchs themselves should be interested in breaking all this up and
    moving ahead in a more pluralist system. Now there are some market
    sectors where this will take longer time and some where it's very
    urgent and it will go faster. I'm saying that because I know, even in
    Europe there are still highly monopolized sectors. Event after 40-50
    year, those countries didn't manage to break up those structures.'

    As Dr. Kambeck further noted, civil society is very important in
    European integration process. `The civil society is actively taking
    part, with EU strongly increasing their programs of working with civil
    society,' he said, expressing hope for initiation of smaller sized
    programs to assist local NGOs.

Working...
X