Tehran Hosts ECO Customs Directors

Tehran hosts a meeting of customs directors from the Economic Cooperation Organization on Wednesday, which will discuss ways of promoting cooperation, facilitating trade and fighting smuggling.

Iran ranked second among ECO members by registering $139.8 billion in foreign trade in 2015, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration. Foreign trade among ECO members stood at $845.24 billion last year with exports and imports accounting for $411.72 billion and $433.51 billion respectively.

Turkey and Afghanistan had the highest and lowest volume of foreign trade with $399.79 billion and $8.3 billion respectively, IRNA reported.

ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the member states. In 1992, ECO expanded to include seven new members, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.