Iran’s Exports to EAEU Countries More than Doubled in 11 Months

Spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Seyed Rouhollah Latifi announced on Tuesday that exports to EAEU countries in the first 11 months of the current local calendar year (ending on March 20, 2020) stood at $1.244 billion, registering a growth of 105 percent, compared to the same period in the year before.

"Iran's trade with EAEU, in this period, stood at $2.448 billion, showing an annual increase of $1.833 billion, i.e. 40 percent rise," he added.

"Russia, Armenia, and Kazakhstan were respectively the major customers of Iranian products in this time span," he said.

"Iran imported $1.204 billion of goods from the EAEU in the said 11 months."

The IRICA attaches great importance for its relations with Eurasia, it has tried to consider the maximum facilities for Iranian exporters of products to Eurasia.

The average tariff set by the EAEU for Iranian goods as part of their provisional preferential trade agreement stands at 3.1 percent, while Iran’s average tariff for commodities from EAEU amounts to 12.9 percent, according to the deputy for international affairs with Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.

Iran and the EAEU have a total of 862 types of commodities listed on their three-year provisional preferential trade agreement. As per the deal, Iran will enjoy much easier export terms and lower customs duties on 502 data-x-items and the same goes to 360 data-x-items from the EAEU member states.

Based on figures released by the IRICA mainly exports pistachios, kiwis, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers and pickles, cabbages, grapes, dates, hydraulic cement, refined copper, methanol and pharmaceuticals to the EAEU countries.

In exchange, major commodities imported into Iran from the EAEU nations include nuclear reactor parts, barley, sunflower oil, raw vegetable oils, field corn, radio navigation devices, cathodes, steel products, pine timber and sheep carcasses.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus are the EAEU member states. The union is an international organization that encourages regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services and people within the union.

Last month, Head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture Gholamhossein Shafeyee named trade with the EAEU a golden chance for the country.

On October 27, the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Islamic Republic of Iran and the EAEU came into effect for 862 products.

Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Hamid Zadboum told FNA that the mentioned agreement was an outset of doing free trade and business with Eurasia; preliminaries of free trade with Eurasian zone are provided one year after the implementation of this trade agreement.

Late in November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) would further strengthen its ties with Iran in the future.