Iran and 27 members of the European Union traded €266.26 million worth of goods and commodities during January, to post a 28.23% decline compared with the previous year's corresponding period, when they exchanged €370.98 million worth of goods.
Latest data extracted from Eurostat's datasets show Iran exported €44.7 million worth of goods to the EU member states, recording a 41.4% decrease compared with the same period of 2019.
Iran’s imports from EU member states declined by 24.8% to €221.5 million during the period under review. Germany accounted for the largest share of exports to Iran, €91.03 million, down 20%, followed by Italy (€31.5 million), the Netherlands (€28.4 million) and France (€14.4 million).
Germany remained the top trading partner of Iran during the period, as the two countries exchanged €108.53 million worth of goods, 24.4% lower than the year before.
Italy came next with €39.3 million worth of trade with Iran. A comparison of bilateral trade indicates a 20.92% year-on-year decline.
The Netherlands with €3.4 million (down 6.9%), France with €16 million (down 27%) and Belgium with €15.5 million (down 8.64%) were Iran's other major European trading partners.
Ireland registered the highest growth in bilateral trade with Iran during the month under review with 371.4%.
Eurostat is a directorate of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to EU institutions and promote the harmonization of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession.
Organizations in different countries that cooperate with Eurostat are summarized under the European Statistical System.
Iran’s main export destinations in the European bloc over the period were Germany (€17 million), Italy (€7.7 million), Spain (€4.04 million) and Romania (€2.29 million).
Exports to Estonia saw the largest increase during the period with 248.32% year-on-year.
The exported goods mainly included edible fruit and nuts; fruit zest; mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes; plastics and articles thereof; pharmaceutical products; coffee, tea, mate and spices; products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included; iron and steel; organic chemicals; carpets and other textile floor coverings.
The imports mainly included nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, parts thereof; pharmaceutical products; optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical instruments and apparatus, parts and accessories thereof, as well as cereals.
Electrical machinery and equipment, parts thereof; and sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, parts and accessories thereof; organic chemicals; miscellaneous chemical products; oilseeds and oleaginous fruits; miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit; industrial or medicinal plants; plastics and articles thereof; essential oils and resinoids; and cosmetic or toilet preparations were other goods imported to Iran from EU in January.
Trade between Iran and 27 EU member states in 2020 stood at €4.24 billion to register a 13.35% decline compared with €4.89 billion in 2019.
Iran exported €618.03 million worth of commodities to EU during the 12-month period, indicating a 7.18% fall compared with €665.8 million in 2019.
Imports from EU dropped by 14.32% to stand at €3.62 billion during 2020.
Europe-Iran Business Forum
The Europe-Iran Business Forum was held via videoconference on March 1-3 with 3,000 participants with the aim of providing a basis for trading, scientific and technological cooperation to increase Iran's non-oil exports, IRNA reported.
The three-day forum was organized in collaboration with Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, the European Union and the International ICT Center.
Economic activists, experts in economic affairs and the press explored avenues for developing economic relations between Iran and Europe.
The themes covered in the forum included a new strategy for exporting Iranian goods and technical services to Europe, maintaining and expanding relations between financial markets and banks of Iran and Europe, supporting European companies interested in investing in Iran despite US sanctions, expansion of trading medicinal plants and auto components, Iran's petrochemical products and IT services in Europe, as well as European investment landscape in Iran.
Mirhadi Seyyedi, a senior official of Trade Promotion Organization, said through this event, Iranian and European companies became familiar with each other and explored investment opportunities, apart from investment ideas.
Scholars from Iran and Europe gave educational lectures during the event on 12 topics for improving Iranian companies' expertise and competence.
Middle Ease Director General in The European House – Ambrosetti Luca Miraglia told IRNA that the forum served as an opportunity to improve trading capacity and expanding exports from Iran to Europe.
"When it comes to US sanctions, one may think no interaction is possible. But I say that our mission is to make Europe's stance clear; one that has never changed since JCPOA was signed.”
Peter Stano, the spokesman of EU foreign policy chief, said the forum was a step toward developing and expanding bilateral trade relations, Mehr News Agency reported.
Speaking in a news conference, Stano said the event paves the way for Iranian and European economic enterprises to develop legitimate trade and business activities.
Facilitating trade, scientific and technological cooperation in line with spurring Iran’s non-oil export has been cited as the main aim behind launching this prestigious forum, he added.
