Domestic manufacturing should have priority over promotion of the so-called free trade with the rest of the world, Mojatab Khosrotaj, the deputy minister of industry, mine and trade, said on Friday.
“The priority should be given to domestic manufacturing. The countries that speak of free trade are those with advanced manufacturing sectors,” he said in an interview with TNA.
He further said that the “preferential tariff system” can be applied to countries such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Kirghizstan and Armenia, arguing that such countries “are unable to threaten Iran’s domestic manufacturing.”
He added that “in spite of its constant call for free trade, Turkey has halted the preferential tariffs, which was to be applied to trade with Iran, in an attempt to support its own domestic manufacturing.”
The preferential tariff system is a trade agreement, which compels trading partners to levy lower rates of duty on imports from each other than they do on imports from other countries in a bid to ease transaction of goods between the two sides.
Iran is currently seeking to reach and apply the system in its trade with a number of countries in the region and beyond.
On December 1, Khosrotaj said trade boost between Iran and Russia requires both sides to reach a consensus on preferential tariffs.
