YEREVAN. – Armenia chose the—Russia-led—Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and not the European Union (EU), because 90 percent of the Armenian companies do not meet European standards.

Economist Hamlet Tadevosyan stated the above-said at Wednesday’s presentation of a research on Armenia’s EEU accession.

“What did EEU accession give to Armenia? It gave [the fact] that now there is no clear customs price; that is, we [i.e. Armenia] now have such an advantage,” Tadevosyan noted. “But this does not affect the economic growth rates of Armenia, since Russia is now in a difficult situation.”

The economist added that he does not see any economic problem for Armenia after its EEU accession, since the GSP+ regime with the EU has not been eliminated. He noted, however, that it is altogether another issue that even though this regime still operates, it gives no privileges to Armenia.

“This stems from our economy. We have no major organization that could have made immediate arrangements with large supermarkets,” the economist noted. “It’s important that we manage to develop our economy, and then both the EU and the EEU will be interested in us.”

Hamlet Tadevosyan added that Armenia has great potential, especially in the agriculture sector.