ArmInfo. Today, on March 19, the second meeting of the Armenia-US Trade and Investment Council will be held in Washington.
"The upcoming meeting of the Armenian-American Council on Trade and Investment confirms the United States commitment to deepening cooperation with Armenia in the field of trade and investment," US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills said.
As the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia reports, the Armenian delegation to the US will be headed by Deputy Minister Hovhannes Azizyan. Issues related to the expansion of bilateral trade and economic relations and investment cooperation, in the sphere of technical obstacles to trade, sanitation and phytosanitary, customs relations and intellectual property will be discussed during the meeting. It is also expected to hold a round table with the participation of business circles of the two countries.
As Ambassador Mills pointed out, for today progress in the sphere of bilateral trade relations is obvious, in particular in 2017, the growth of trade turnover was fixed by 42%. "This meeting, following the visit of the US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Brian McFithers, is another step forward in the dialogue between countries aimed at removing obstacles to the expansion of mutual trade and investment," he said.
The Armenian delegation, Hovhannes Azizyan said, is planning to discuss the current regulation in the sphere of trade and economic relations at the session, considering the possibilities of simplifying trade, which, necessarily, will have a stimulating effect on mutual trade. The investment environment in the Republic of Armenia and works aimed at its improvement will also be presented. "With the American side, those events will be discussed that will make the investment environment of Armenia more attractive for companies from the United States," he said.
Earlier, ArmInfo informed that the Armenian government plans to address the issue of excluding double taxation between Armenia and the US in March 2018 - during the regular meeting of the intergovernmental commission. As the Armenian Ministry of Finance has repeatedly stated, in any case, the absence of an agreement on the exclusion of double taxation hinders the adoption of positive decisions by business entities. The issue of exclusion of double taxation between Armenia and the US has been discussed for over 20 years - since 1994, the Armenian government has raised this issue. In 2000, during the Armenian- American intergovernmental meeting, the issue of the need to conclude a treaty was raised. Since then, although preparatory work is under way to conclude a treaty, in fact, the talks themselves have not started. In early February this year. T
he US Department of Treasury expressed its readiness to discuss the issue of revising the Treaty on Avoiding Double Taxation with Armenia. Representatives of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) with the head of the US Ministry of Finance discussed prospects of concluding a new Agreement on avoidance of double taxation with Armenia.
It should be noted that Armenia has similar agreements with about 50 countries. The purpose of these agreements is to eliminate double taxation in foreign trade between the two states, to avoid tax discrimination with respect to economic entities of the parties, to exclude double taxation on property and income, and to create a predictable and stable tax environment for business.
