TEHRAN – Nicaragua’s Minister of Finance and Public Credit has voiced his country’s readiness for barter trade with Iran to mitigate the impact of the U.S. sanctions on the two countries’ trade.

Ivan Acosta Montalvan made the remarks in a meeting with the representatives of Iran’s private sector in Tehran on Tuesday, ILNA reported.

In the meeting which was attended by senior officials from both sides including Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholamhossein Shafeie, and Laura Ortega Advisor to the Nicaragua President on investment, the two sides underlined the great potentials for mutual cooperation in all areas.

In this regard, Acosta noted that his government will do its utmost to restore bilateral relations between the two countries, adding that “We have signed a comprehensive agreement with the Iranian government to start a new era of economic relations.”

Commenting on the volume of trade between the two countries, Shafei also emphasized that "All efforts should be made to expand the volume of trade between the two countries as unfortunately since 2016 the trend of mutual trade has been downward.”

"Iran and Nicaragua could cooperate in a variety of areas, for example, it is possible to barter Nicaragua’s red meat with Iran’s petrochemical products,” the ICCIMA head said.

Exchanging trade delegations, eliminating visa, exporting engineering services to Nicaragua and establishing joint ventures were other issues discussed in the meeting.

Iran and Nicaragua signed a memorandum of understanding in the Iranian capital Tehran on Saturday for joint investments in the fields of oil, agricultural outsourcing and industries.

The signatories were Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Farhad Dejpasand and Nicaragua’s Minister of Finance and Public Credit Ivan Acosta Montalvan.

EF/