Tamar Khuntsaria, September 2012

The negotiations on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the European Union (EU) are an important element of the current agenda of the EU-Georgia relations. Political dialogue between the Government of Georgia and the European Commission on DCFTA commenced soon after the August war in 2008 and aimed at opening official negotiations on DCFTA once structural and policy reforms set forth as preconditions by the EU were launched in Georgia. Early in 2010, official Tbilisi asserted that it had made a substantial progress with respect to the Commission’s preconditions. Nonetheless, the Commission postponed the opening of official negotiations to January 2012 and announced DCFTA to be an integral part of the projected Association Agreement (AA) with Georgia – a far reaching and ambitious, and therefore, a lengthy document to conclude. This paper offers analysis of the possible impediments to concluding a DCFTA with Georgia.