DUSHANBE, March 5, 2009, Asia-Plus — On Wednesday March 4, experts from the CIS member nations gathered in Moscow to discuss a draft CIS free trade zone (FTZ) treaty, according to press release issued by the CIS Executive Committee.
The document, developed in compliance with the plan of main actions for implementation of the CIS further development concept, was presented by Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development.
The meeting participants included representatives of Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Tajikistan presented written notices and proposals on the draft treaty.
The CIS experts offered a number of suggestions. They, in particular, proposed to include the provisions such as protection of intellectual property, service trading and public purchases into the document.
The meeting participants decided to set up a working group and hold the next meeting in Moscow in April 2009.
A free trade zone (FTZ) or export processing zone (EPZ) is one or more special areas of a country where some normal trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas are eliminated and bureaucratic requirements are lowered in hopes of attracting new business and foreign investments. It is a region where a group of countries has agreed to reduce or eliminate trade barriers.
Free trade zones can be defined as labor intensive manufacturing centers that involve the import of raw materials or components and the export of factory products. Most FTZs are located in developing countries.
