Iran’s Ambassador to Turkey Alireza Bigdeli and Turkey’s Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci discussed avenues to expand bilateral ties in a meeting held in Ankara on Monday.
During the meeting, Bigdeli said the recent growth in Turkey’s exports to Iran despite the overall decline in Turkish trade signals that the country’s private sector is steadfast to remain active in Iran’s market, IRNA reported.
Despite a 21.8% decline in Iran-Turkey trade in the first seven months of 2015 over the similar period of last year, Turkey’s exports to Iran registered a surge of 22.1% during the period.
“Further cooperation in post-sanctions era, considering Turkish companies’ knowledge of Iran’s market and their relations with Iranian companies will help expand ties between the two countries,” he said.
Although the fall in Iran’s exports to Turkey is attributed to the drop in oil prices, non-oil exports to the neighboring country have recently seen an uplift thanks to the preferential trade agreements signed in January 2014, which went into effect in January 2015.
According to Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, exports to Turkey of items included in the PTA almost doubled in the fourth quarter of last year (ended March 20) compared to the third quarter to reach $42.56 million.
“PTAs pave the way for a transition to bilateral free trade,” said Zeybekci, stressing that development of such agreements should be a top priority for both governments.
According to the PTA, each side agreed to reduce tariffs on a list of imports from the other side. The list includes 142 Iranian products and 120 Turkish goods.
