Free trade deal between Georgia and 4 European countries comes into play today

From today the free trade agreement between the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Georgia is coming into play for Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Georgia and the EFTA states - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – signed the free trade agreement in June 2016, while it entered into force on September 1, 2017. At that stage the agreement entered into force only among Georgia, Norway and Iceland. Today it comes into force for Switzerland and Liechtenstein as well.

The agreement will help boost trade relations between the contracting parties.

More specifically, it means Georgian goods will now be exported without tariff and non-tariff barriers to EFTA member nations.

The decision to establish a free trade deal with Georgia was made by the EFTA Council of Foreign Ministers on November 17, 2014.

The first round of negotiations took place in Georgia in September 2015, while the second round was held in December 2015.

Georgia successfully completed its third and final round of negotiations with the EFTA in February 2016.

So far Georgia has free trade deals with Turkey, the European Union (EU), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Recently, Georgia signed a free trade agreement with China.

The Georgian Government has also started free trade talks with India.