A high-ranking economic delegation from Armenia, headed by its Economy Minister Tigran Khachatryan and accompanied by representatives of public and private sectors, is expected to visit Iran in late January.
“Negotiations will be carried out on expanding the list of commodities included in Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union’s preferential trade agreement, banking and transit cooperation, connecting Aras Free Trade Zone in Iran’s East Azarbaijan Province and Meghri Free Economic Zone in Armenia’s Syunik Province,” Mojtaba Mousavian, the deputy head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, was quoted as saying by ILNA.
The official noted that the Armenian delegation will also visit several production and industrial sites and discuss the possibility of joint production and exports to third-party countries.
“As imports of all Turkish commodities into Armenia has been banned since Jan. 1, a favorable opportunity has been provided for Iranian businesses to offer their products to the Armenian market in the absence of their main rival [Turkey] and increase trade between the two countries,” Mousavian said.
Armenia has announced that it will replace 2,250 Turkish products with Iranian goods, the official had said earlier.
"Due to Turkish sanctions, Armenia intends to replace Iranian goods with 2,250 items imported from Turkey. In the next step, Armenia will also import its required raw materials from Iran," he added.
The Yerevan government suspended the import of Turkish goods to Armenia for six months in response to Turkish military support for the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The ban was adopted on Oct. 20, 2020, and came into force on Jan. 1, 2021.
Armenia’s Ministry of Economy has said the ban will not increase the price of goods in the country because it believes that the consumption of Turkish goods is not dominant in this country and Yerevan is able to compensate for the shortage of Turkish goods from countries such as Iran, Belarus, Russia and China.
Behrouz Hosn-Olfat, another TPO official, said the latest trade figures show that Iran exported a total of $255 million over the first 10 months of 2020.
“Iran’s exports to the neighboring Armenia reached a total of $330 million during 2019, 29% and 20% of which pertained to oil products, cement and clinker respectively. Other main exported products were iron, steel and plastic products, fruit and vegetables, tiles and ceramics, construction glass, chemicals and fertilizers.”
Gateway to Eurasian Market
Abbas Zohouri, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia, during a recent trip to Aras Free Economic Zone, visited the Norduz checkpoint, the border crossing point into Armenia from Iran, FEZ’s press service said.
“As Iran’s gateway to the Eurasian market, the Norduz border plays an important role in the country’s exports and attraction of foreign currency, and creates conditions for the daily growing presence of Iranian products in Eurasian and CIS markets,” the ambassador said during a meeting with the head of Jolfa County and other local officials, Armenpress reported.
Zohouri said the border crossing point favors Jolfa County and Aras FEZ, and affirmed the importance of attracting investments and developing cooperation.
The Meghri-Norduz border crossing point is the only land border between Armenia and Iran. Free economic zones are operating on both sides and the development of cooperation in these zones and the checkpoint is on the agenda of discussions.
Iran-Armenia trade amounted to $408.77 million in 2019, registering a 12.44% rise compared to the year before.
Iran exported only $324.92 million worth of goods to Armenia last year, up by 20.64% YOY.
Imports from Armenia totaled $83.85 million in 2019, down by 10.99% YOY.
