BRUSSELS — Armenia will become the only coun- try to receive such economic preferences despite neither holding EU candidate sta- tus nor having a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the Europe- an Union, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan said. The EU proposal intro- ducing autonomous trade measures for Armenian products has received final approval from the Council of the European Union. Following its signing by the presidents of the Europe- an Parliament and the Coun- cil of the EU, the regulation will be published in the Of- ficial Journal of the Europe- an Union and will enter into force the following day. “With this regulation, the EU will liberalize approxi- mately 80 percent of Arme- nia’s exports to the EU by suspending import duties on a broad range of goods, in- cluding certain agricultural products. These measures will contribute to the diver- sification of Armenia’s for- eign trade, expand access to the EU market for Armenian products, and further deepen Armenia-EU economic and trade cooperation. Once it enters into force, the prefer- ential regime will remain in effect for two years,” Bada- lyan said. On September 2, the Council of the EU approved the proposal without amend- ments. The European Parlia- ment subsequently approved the document during its Sep- tember 15 plenary session. On September 23, the pro- posal was also approved by the EU Council’s Committee of Permanent Representa- tives. “With the adoption of this regulation, Armenia be- comes the only country that, despite not having EU can- didate status or a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU, will receive such an economic preference. This once again demonstrates the unprece- dentedly high level of the Armenia-EU partnership and is consistent with the spirit of the declaration of the first Armenia-EU summit and the Strategic Partnership Agen- da,” Badalyan said.