MINSK, 18 September (BelTA) – I hope the CIS Trade in Services Agreement will be signed soon, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee – CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev told the media ahead of the meeting of the CIS Council of Permanent Plenipotentiaries in Minsk on 18 September, BelTA has learned.
"The CIS is currently working intensively to get the Trade in Services Agreement signed. The issue is complicated; the work has been on for several years. But we are close to its completion and hope that we will reach a positive result in the very near future," Sergei Lebedev said.
According to him, the agreement has been developed in furtherance of the CIS Free Trade Agreement. "This is an important topic that we are very concerned about. The FTA has created favorable conditions for boosting trade between the CIS states and has yielded positive results. For example, mutual trade rose by 24% in 2017 over 2016. Many obstacles in mutual trade have been eliminated," Sergei Lebedev noted.
The CIS Free Trade Agreement was signed in October 2011. The CIS Council of Permanent Plenipotentiaries will take stock of its implementation at its meeting in Minsk.
