30% Rise in Non-Oil Exports to Pakistan

Iran exported 1.2 million tons of non-oil goods worth $497.5 million to Pakistan during the eight months to November 20, registering a 30% increase compared with last year’s corresponding period. Petrochemicals, bitumen, gas, lead, vegetable seeds, carpet, pistachio and tiles were among the main exported commodities, the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration’s latest data show. Iran and Pakistan are in talks to reach a free trade deal. “We hope the FTA will be finalized by the end of 2017,” Pakistan’s Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan was earlier quoted as saying. He was scheduled to visit Iran last week, but the visit was canceled without mentioning any reason. Pakistan presented a draft of its proposed FTA to Iran during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s state visit to Pakistan back in March. Iranian authorities approved the draft after adding their own considerations and returned it to Pakistani officials in mid-September. Iran-Pakistan trade peaked in 2012 when commercial exchanges exceeded $3 billion. The figure, however, followed a downtrend in the following years.