Armenia wants to be transparent in its relations with European, American partners - Vahan Kerobyan

ArmInfo. In the present-day  geopolitical conditions proper transparency needs to be maintained to  prevent Russia and Belarus from breaking the sanctions, Grzegorz  Piechowiak, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Economic  Development and Technology of Poland, stated at the 7th meeting of  the Armenian-Polish Commission for Economic Cooperation.  

"We highly appreciate Armenia's efforts to this effect and hope it  will put an end to this practice. I will be happy if the Ministry [of  Economy of Armenia] provides information on Armenia's actions," he  said. 

With respect to the bilateral cooperation, Mr Piechowiak noted that  Poland, which is the largest dynamically developing EU member-state,  and Armenia can offer much to each other. In the context of  cooperation with Armenia, Poland prioritizes agriculture, mining  industry, IT, financial technologies, cybersecurity, etc. He  announced Poland's intention to increase agricultural exports to  Armenia. The Polish delegation is also interested in the Dry Port  project in Gyumri. 

"Our task is to create favorable conditions for cooperation for our  business communities. We need more active communication now," Mr  Piechowiak said. 

In his turn, Armenia's Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said that  Armenia's government attaches importance to protecting Armenian  companies from secondary sanctions. In this context, he reported that  only some Armenian companies have been blacklisted during the one  year of sanctions against Russia and Belarus.  

"This May our American and European partners sent us a list of goods  of critical importance, and we tightened control over the export of  the goods for several days. Of course, that caused problems to  producers, but being transparent and clear for our European and  American partners is important for us," he said. 

Last year, Armenian-Polish trade totaled $98.8mln - a 50.4% growth.  Exported totaled $22.2mln (9.8% growth), imports totaled $76.5mln. 

This January-April, the bilateral trade totaled $93.2mln - 4.4-fold  growth. Exported totaled $6.5mln (an 18.1% decline), with imports  totaling $86.7 (a 6.4-fold growth). 

On June 13, Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Martin  Galstyan predicted a decline in exports and imports during this year.  He explained the reason was stricter requirements for the sales of  goods manufactured in partner countries in the countries of import,  with a ban on re-export. Therefore, exports from and imports to  Armenia will decrease. 

"We see international companies more frequently demand confirmation  their products will be sold within our economic jurisdiction, without  being re-exported. In this respect, I think the more controlling  mechanisms are applied the better we can see a decline in  re-exports," Mr Galstyan said.  

Meanwhile, Armenia's Ministry of Economy does not expect a decline in  exports or imports this year due to a possible decline in re-exports.  On June 16, Armenia's Deputy Minister of Economy Rafael Gevorgyan  stated that slower growth rates could be recorded by the end of this  year, but no decline in supplies was expected. He stressed such the  forecasts were based on the available data on exports and imports  (for less than six months), which shows a marked increase in  supplied. He noted that the re-exports include goods eligible for  export. 

"Of course, re-export has some impact on exports, but it by no means  has anything in common with the sanctions," he said.