Saakashvili Calls for Speeding Up Free Trade with EU

President Saakashvili said on November 15, that he was expecting to launch talks on free trade agreement with the European Union before the year’s end.
 
“We are expecting that before the end of this year we will open negotiations on deep and comprehensive free trade agreement with the European Union. We need it first of all,” he said.

Saakashvili said that he would discuss this issue with EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, when she visits Georgia on November 16.

“We need to accelerate free trade agreement now as never before,” Saakashvili said in a speech at the opening of new headquarters of Bank of Georgia. “Whatever problems the European market may face now, the European market is really very important for the country like Georgia. At the same time, Central Asian market, CIS markets are also very important for us. It is also important for us to develop in all directions but in order to gain access to markets we should raise the productivity of our economy. The key problem today is low productivity in all sectors of economy.”

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in his statement in which he was welcoming Russia-Georgia WTO deal, that the EU would continue its “important work towards political association and economic integration with Georgia, including to form a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area.”

President Saakashvili also said on November 15, that Georgia was “much more advanced in terms of infrastructure development than many of EU-member countries.”

“Some join EU in order to develop their infrastructure; when we join the EU – and that’s a truth, which everybody speaks of – our infrastructure will be more developed than that of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia; we are managing to do that with our resources and of course with donors’ assistance,” Saakashvili said.