Iran to open first national trade office in Russia

Chairman of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture Gholamhossein Shafei said the opening of the office in Russia will contribute to a boost of Iran’s trade with Eurasia, Iccima.Ir reported.

Other developments in this regard include the opening of a Silk Road chamber of commerce with 67 members, he added.

Also, the first Silk Road Conference will be held in China in late November, Shafei said in a meeting attended by government officials and private sector authorities.

In late October, a preferential trade agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEC) came into force.

The two sides launched trade on 826 items of goods on October 27, 2019. Of that number, 360 include commodities on which Iran has granted preferential tariffs to Eurasia, and 502 are goods on which the EEC has offered Iran preferential tariffs.

Iran’s customs office data shows balance of trade in the first two quarters of the current Iranian year, which started in March, was slightly negative as a report showed trade deficit recorded for the period was $273 million.

A report by ILNA cited an analysis of the customs data for Iran’s trade of goods excluding crude in the six-month period ending on September 22, 2019, saying the country exported $21 billion worth of goods while imports reached $21.2 billion over the same period.

It said China remained Iran’s main destination of exports with some 20 percent of the shipments sent to the country while it also topped the list of exporters to Iran in the same period.

The report said India was no longer among the top five destinations of exports from Iran while South Korea had lost its place in the group of five top exporters to Iran.

Iran’s exports to the United Arab Emirates had fallen by 42 percent compared to the last year while imports from the country had increased by 48 percent, said the report, adding that trade with the UAE hit a deficit of $1.5 billion in the six-month period, down from an unspecified but positive balance of trade reported in March-September 2018.

The report said Iran exported a net volume of 70 million tons of goods excluding crude since March, adding that the net weight of imports into the country had reached 16.6 million tons in the same period.

The value of exports and imports had fallen by 11 and six percent, respectively, said the report, adding that exports increased by 23 percent in volume terms while the total weight of imports increased slightly, by 0.4 percent, until September 22.

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