On March 27, 2017, within the Meeting of the Heads of Governments of the GUAM Member States, the Business Forum «GUAM is Area of Free Trade and Transit» was held in which representatives of national delegations, including officials and representatives of the private sector, as well as international organizations, diplomatic corps, business circles and business associations took part.
The event was opened by the speeches of GUAM Heads of Government and GUAM Secretary General and continued with two panels: «GUAM Free Trade Area: Current Status and Development Prospects», as well as «GUAM Transport Corridor: Current Status and Development Prospects».
Within the panels, speeches were made by the deputy ministers of the relevant departments of the GUAM Member States, the Head of the Permanent Delegation of the International Road Transport Union in Eurasia, the representative of the GUAM Trade and Transport Facilitation Project Steering Committee, as well as representatives of the GUAM business circles. It was examined the prospects for the development of the GUAM Free Trade Area and the functioning of the GUAM Transport Corridor in the context of the signing Protocol on the Approval of the Procedure for the Establishment and Operation of the Working Body coordinating the activities of the Contracting Parties of the Agreement on Establishment of Free Trade Area between the GUUAM Participating States of July 20, 2002 and Protocol between the customs administrations of GUAM Member States on mutual recognition of certain results of customs procedures regarding goods and vehicles moved across the state borders of GUAM Member States.
It was stressed the importance of the establishment of the above-mentioned Working Body and the involvement of representatives of the business community in its work with a view to enhancing its effectiveness. The close interaction of representatives of the official departments and the private sector will allow identifying bottlenecks and other factors that impede the development of the Free Trade Area and the GUAM Transport Corridor as well as their prompt elimination.
Participants noted the need to hold the GUAM Business Forum on a regular basis.
