The Washington Times: The benefits of free trade with the Georgian Republic

The Washington Times has published an analysis by  Mamuka Tsereteli, president of the America-Georgia Business Council and a senior research fellow for the Central-Asia Caucasus Institute at AFPC, which discusses how Georgia has managed to transform itself economically and politically and why further economic partnership with Georgia could provide benefits for the US  and other countries.

Tsereteli says that being a large recipient of US assistance, Georgia reciprocates not only by contributing military forces to international security operations, but also by fostering great business opportunities for American companies.

Georgia itself provides excellent opportunities for US enterprises in the areas of infrastructure development, transportation, telecommunications, hospitality, food and beverage industry and finance.

Georgia has free trade agreements with the EU, Turkey, the CIS countries and China, which create exceptional opportunities for U.S. companies involved in Georgia to have tariff-free access to markets of more than two billion people.

The United States must do all it can to encourage expanded economic ties with Georgia to exploit these and other economic and financial opportunities, but also for important geopolitical reasons,” the analytical story reads.

Tsereteli says that the alternative course for Georgia would be to reintegrate into backward governance, obsolete technological and management environment of the Russian orbit.
 
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