Trade boost between Iran and Russia requires both sides to reach a consensus on preferential tariffs, Mojtaba Khosro-taj, the deputy minister of industry, mine and trade, said on Sunday.
The preferential tariffs system, which compels both nations to levy lower rates of duty on imports from each other than they do on imports from other countries, is expected to further ease transaction of goods between Iran and Russia.
In a meeting with his Russian counterpart Georgy Kalamanov, Khosro-taj also said that “previously signed agreements need to be implemented to enable the two countries to further expand economic ties,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying.
“A new chapter has opened in relations between Iran and Russia,” he said noting that industrial cooperation between the two countries is yet to reach its optimum level.
On November 1, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Assadollah Asgaroladi, said that Iran’s Central Bank is mulling over a plan to remove the US dollar and the euro from Iran-Russia trade exchange and replace them with the Iranian rial and the Russian rouble.
Kalamanov said upon his turn that Russian industrial companies are ready for cooperation with Iranian partners and that in the near future a delegation from Russian companies will travel to Iran for industrial agreements.
Trade between Iran and Russia currently stands at about $1.7 billion, a level that officials expect to double soon.
“Trade between Russia and Iran is not as big as it could be. Now it is about $1.7 billion. Some experts say it can increase to $3 billion in the next few years,” Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the International Committee of the Russian State Duma’s lower parliament house announced on November 21.
Trade Boost Ambition
Minister of Industry, Mine and trade, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, said on Sunday that Iran and Russia are ambitious to boost bilateral trade.
The minister made the remark after the Exports Guarantee funds of Iran (EGFI) and Export Insurance Agency of Russia (EXIAR) signed an MoU on Sunday.
“Today’s agreement is in line with other economic agreements previously reached between the two countries,” Nematzadeh said.
According to the MoU, signed by Nematzadeh and his Russian counterpart, Alexi Ulyukayev, both sides agreed to make joint effort to provide finance to companies active in business, trade and investment, and provide insurance coverage to the Iranian and Russian-made products that are traded at the international level.
