Iran, Pakistan to Increase Trade Ties to 5 Billion Dollars in 5 Years
Pakistan, which has about 1,000 kilometers of land border, is highly important to Iran, Head of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) for Indian Subcontinent Affairs Hadi Talebian Moqaddam said.
Focusing on trade exchanges with the Asian countries, specially the neighbors, is Tehran's main approach which can be clearly observed in policies of the government, he added.
Talebian Moqaddam referred to the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian to Pakistan, saying that a five-year strategic trade cooperation document was inked for a five-year period.
Under the document, the trade value between Iran and Pakistan will increase up to $5 billion in five years, he stressed.
The Iranian official also pointed to the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Iran and Pakistan, saying such agreement was launched in 2006 in line with policies to bolster trade and economic ties.
He then pointed to Pakistan’s willingness for bartering goods with Iran, and stated that the bartering deal had been already carried out between the two countries traditionally and in very low volumes, but this important issue will be strengthened in the current administration optimally.
Spokesman of the Trade Promotion Commission of the Iranian House of Industry, Mine and Trade Rouhollah Latifi announced in August that trade exchanges between Iran and Pakistan hit $2.3 billion in the past Iranian (ended March 20), showing a 48% growth in value.
Latifi said that more than 4,285,000 tons of non-oil products, valued at $2.330 billion, were exchanged between Iran and Pakistan last year, registering a 48 percent and 30 percent growth in value and weight, respectively.
He also referred to the non-oil trade between Iran and Pakistan, and said, “Of the total $2.330 billion worth of trade exchanges between the two countries, Iran exported to Pakistan more than 3,538,000 tons of goods, valued at over $1.488 billion.”
This is while Iran imported 746,700 tons of non-oil goods, valued at $841.818 million from Pakistan in 2022, Latifi said.
4155/v
