Exports to Syria reached $49 million in the first two months of the current fiscal year (March 21-May 21), registering a 73% growth in terms of value year-on-year, according to the head of Syria Desk at the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran's Department for Arab-African Affairs.
Steam turbine parts worth $30 million (60%) had the highest share in the total value of exports to Syria. Other exported products included electrical conductors, iron and steel bars, as well as infant formula, Soheila Rasoulinejad added.
Total imports from Syria stood at $2 million in the same period.
Tehran and Damascus have signed a free trade agreement that, according to the director general of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran’s Arab-African Affairs Department, Farzad Piltan, can have a significant effect on easing trade between the two sides.
Piltan noted that Syria’s high demand for agricultural and food products, home appliances, pharmaceuticals, construction material, sanitary ware, agro machinery and equipment, and Iran’s capabilities in these areas, coupled with its reasonable prices and high quality, can help boost commercial interactions between the two sides.
Syria and Iran concluded a free trade agreement in February 2012, which included reducing customs duties to 4% on goods traded between the two countries, cancelling all quantitative restrictions and lifting the ban on imports.
The agreement came into force on March 12, 2012 and allowed commercial trucks to pass between the two countries through Iraq.
