No possibility to develop trade with Turkey; official
Head of Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce Mehrdad Saadat Dehghan criticized Turkey’s inspection process at the border checkpoints which harms the export and transit of the goods to or through this country.
Speaking to ILNA, Saadat Dehghan said it is Turkey Customs Office’s right to inspect the cargoes which are imported into Turkey or transited through this country, adding that but this inspection should not cause any damage to the goods as sometimes the goods are damaged and forced to be returned to the country.
He said in recent weeks there have been some problems with Turkish Customs Office and the related Turkish bodies were informed but it was disregarded. He begged the Iran-Turkey Joint Commission, Iran Customs Administration, and Iran Trade Promotion Organization to take this issue seriously and resolve it.
He added that trucks carrying Iranian goods have sometimes to wait up to 70 days at Turkish Customs due to illogical reasons.
Saadat Dehghan added that sometimes truck carrying engine oil which just is being transited via Turkey but is stopped at the Turkish border for a long time while there is no legal problem for its transit. He warned that with current condition and long delay for release of the trucks, Iranian goods cannot be taken to their destinations on time and the exporters do not afford to pay the costs of the long delay.
He added that sometimes Iranian goods are damaged at the border and they are returned to the country and they are not even in a condition to be re-exported.
He reiterated that with the current condition, exports to Turkey become meaningless and all are recommended to forget exporting to Turkey because they will suffer losses, emphasizing that with the current attitude of Turkey, there is no possibility to develop trade with this country.
On the current domestic problems, Saadat Dehghan said that sanctions, forex problems and transportation are of the other woes affecting the trade with Turkey and above all Turkey’s behavior for solving these problems has caused exports to Turkey to lose its meaning.
He further said that imports from Turkey have also faced problems and transited cargo via Turkey faces domestic restrictions which makes traders lose interest in exports to Iran, and the truth is that Turkish traders cannot export to Iran.
Saadat Dehghan noted that in the time when borders were closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Iran’s exports to Turkey had declined by 90 percent but after opening of the borders it improved, and again recent problems have created hurdle for Iran’s exports.
According to the latest report released by Turkish Statistical Institute, Iran’s trade with Turkey stood at $2.28 billion during the first three quarters of 2020 (January-September) to register a decrease of 59.76% compared with the corresponding period of 2019.
Iran exported $782.3 million worth of goods to Turkey during the period to register a 78.3% year-on-year drop. Imports from Iran’s neighboring country stood at $1.5 billion, down 27.3% YOY.
Monthly trade between Iran and Turkey fell to under $300 million in the ninth month of the year, mostly due to a fall in Iran’s exports to the neighboring country.
END