On March 19, the second session of the Armenia-US Trade and Investment Council took place at the Office of the United States Trade Representative in Washington.

The meeting has been Co-Chaired by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA Hovhannes Azizyan and Assistant to the United States Trade Representative for Europe and Middle East Daniel Mullaney.

The Armenian delegation was composed of the representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of RA, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of RA, State Service for Food Safety of the Ministry of Agriculture of RA, State Revenue Committee of RA.

The US delegation was composed of the representatives from the US State Department, agriculture, labor and trade departments, the US Customs and Border Protection Service, Food and Drug Administration and the US Agency for International Development.

Issues on the expansion of bilateral trade-economic and investment cooperation, trade-related technical barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary, customs, intellectual property rights, GSP trade regime, etc. have been discussed during the session.

At the end of the session Armenia-US trade agenda has been summed up and spheres of further discussions and consultations have been clarified.

On March 20, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Manisha Singh received the Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA Hovhannes Azizyan and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of RA Robert Harutyunyan. The Principal Deputy Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the State Brian McFeeters and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the USA Grigor Hovhannisyan attended the meeting.

The sides expressed satisfaction with the willingness of two countries to boost trade and investment volumes. And the results of the Armenia-US Trade and Investment Council session and the priorities of bilateral economic cooperation have been represented.

The Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA Hovhannes Azizyan stressed the effectiveness of the session and said, “Very effective discussions took place. We are satisfied with the readiness of the parties to work together to develop trade between the two countries. During the session, we touched upon almost all areas of trade and investment cooperation. For Armenia, we highlighted the availability of information on US import procedures and the steps that would facilitate the import process. We discussed also the possibilities of eliminating existing barriers in information technology sector. The board meeting was an important platform where we formulated our further steps and plans. Now, I think, we need to work actively to implement the reached arrangements.”

“The United States will continue working with Armenia within the framework of the Armenian-American Trade and Investment Council, seeking to boost bilateral trade and investment opportunities with Armenia. We will continue to cooperate with Armenia to take steps necessary to strengthen the business and investment environment,” said the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy to Armenia Rafik Mansour who attended Armenia-US Trade and Investment Council session.

Armenia-US Trade and Investment Council has been founded on May 7, 2015.