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.
