Top economic officials from Turkey and Iran met in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss ways of expanding their annual trade exchanges to $30 billion.
Mohammadreza Nematzadeh, minister of industry, mine and trade, and the visiting Turkish economy minister Nihat Zeybekci signed a preferential trade agreement during the meeting, ISNA reported.
The two sides also agreed to use the national currencies of both countries in their trade exchanges as of January 1, Nematzadeh announced. Tehran and Ankara are planning to have closer banking relations in a bid to support their mutual transactions.
“In accordance with the agreement, Iran accepted to decrease tariffs on 125 goods as a goodwill gesture, while Turkey agreed to reduce tariffs on 140 Iranian imports,” the Turkish minister said.
The preferential tariff 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 and services between Iran and Turkey.
The preferential trade agreement was signed on January 29, 2014 when the then Turkish Prime Minister (now President of Turkey), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, paid an official visit to Tehran.
The value of trade between Iran and Turkey in the first half of 2014 stood at $6.5 billion, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute. Trade between Turkey and Iran stood at $22 billion in 2012 before dipping to $14.5 billion in the following year due to the economic sanctions imposed on Tehran by the West.
Turkey’s Zeybekci was also set to hold meetings with Iran’s first vice president, Es’haq Jahangiri, and communication and information technology minister, Mahmoud Vaezi.
