Tehran, Muscat can boost bilateral trade by $5b

Mohsen Zarrabi said, “Given the suitable conditions for increasing diversity of Iranian export goods and existing infrastructures for re-export in Oman, the two countries of Iran and Oman enjoy high capacity to increase volume of bilateral trade up to $5 billion.”

Turning to the appropriateness of political and economic relations between the two countries of Iran and Oman, Zarrabi stated, “Concurrent with the establishment of Iran-Oman Joint Chamber of Commerce in 2013, volume of bilateral trade exchange between the two countries stood at over $221 million in absence of suitable and necessary infrastructures.”

With the improvement of infrastructures in 2018 including maritime lines, facilitation of registration of company and removal of visa between the two countries, Iran’s volume of trade to Oman hit about $1.161 billion in this period.

But Iran’s trade with the Sultanate of Oman decreased as much as 40 percent in 2019 due to some problems happened in the country such as daily directives issued ahead of banning export of goods and/or imposing export duties, etc., he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarrabi referred to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and closure of some borders in this period and reiterated, “Despite all problems and difficulties caused by the sanctions imposed against Iran and spread of COVID-19, trade volume exchange between Iran and Oman hit $797 million in 11 months of the last Iranian calendar year (from March 21, 2020 to Feb. 19, 2021), showing a considerable growth as compared to the same period of last year.”

Turning to the key role of Omani ports in importing goods to the Islamic Republic of Iran during the pandemic, the chairman of Iran-Oman Joint Chamber of Commerce stated, “In spite of closure of ports and borders on Iranian goods and commodities by many countries during the pandemic, Oman increased trade shipping lines between the two countries.”

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