Iran and Turkey seek to expand their bilateral trade to $30 billion in value, Tnews reported on Wednesday.
In a joint meeting held in Turkey, Iranian parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emphasized the need to bolster economic and energy cooperation between the two sides, especially in light of the current developments in the region.
The meeting was also attended by Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek, Larijani.
Iran and Turkey have recently taken important steps towards promoting bilateral relations, including the establishment of a High Council on Iran-Turkey Strategic Cooperation, the first session of which was held in Ankara back in June, when President Hassan Rouhani visited Turkey. During his visit the president signed an accord on preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Ankara. Based on the PTA, the two sides agreed to decrease the customs clearance tariffs for 265 items of good, including those on clothing.
“The present tariff of 100 percent on clothing seeks to curb smuggling and build buffers for domestic producers; however, regarding the recently-signed PTA with Turkey the amount will be reduced to 50 percent,” Abolghasem Shirazi, the head of Tehran apparel producers and sellers union told ISNA on Friday. The government will take advantage of the benefits earned from apparel trade and will utilized it to increase production, create jobs, and protect producers, he added.
Regarding a deal recently reached between the two sides resolving a months-long dispute over the transit fees, “presently about 400 trucks are crossing the joint border on a daily basis,” ISNA quoted Mohammad Javad Atrchian, head of transit and terminals department of The Islamic Republic of Iran Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization as saying on Friday.
According to the agreement, Iranian trucks crossing the Iran-Turkey border are not required to pay any transit fees, while Turkish trucks should pay $0.3 euro ($0.35) as price differential for each liter of fuel they purchase in Iran.
The two countries are also trying to improve the level of their cross-border trade, which they believe plays a key role in increasing the total bilateral trade volume. To that end, Hossein Seyvani, the governor of Kohy – a city in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province – and Idin Naziyeh Doghan, the governor of Van –in eastern Turkey’s Van province – met each other on Wednesday at Razi Border, which is 65 kilometers in the west of Khoy.
Underlining the optimum level of $30 billion in bilateral trade by the end of 2015, the officials discussed construction of new roads and terminals as well as easing custom regulations, ISNA reported.
The volume of commercial transactions between Iran and Turkey has grown considerably, reaching $11.3 billion in the first 10 months of the current Iranian year, based on official statistics.
