TEHRAN – The head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) has criticized the imbalance in the country’s exports and imports and said the TPO is taking new measures to reduce the imbalance in the country’s foreign trade.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Mohammad-Ali Dehghan Dehnavi mentioned the negative balance of the country’s foreign trade in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-Septemebr 21), noting that imports were about $7.0 billion more than the exports.

As Mehr News Agency reported, the official said the country’s trade balance was also $16.8 billion negative in the previous Iranian calendar year.

According to Dehghan Dehnavi, TPO is in talks with the government to revive the Export Development High Council in order to help boost the country’s non-oil exports.

Mentioning four major reasons for the imbalance in the country’s foreign trade, he said: “The decrease in global prices, especially in petrochemical products, with an average decrease of 30 to 60 percent, and the occurrence of some problems in the export of natural gas, which led to a $5.3 billion drop in the exports of the mentioned product, were among the external factors of the decline in exports.”

He underlined the ban on exports of raw materials as the third reason for the reduction in non-oil exports, saying: “We agree that exporting raw materials is not a good idea, but we disagree with the way the situation is handled. If we want to reduce the exports of such goods, we have to invest in the production of products with higher value-added, which requires financing.”

“Export duties should be imposed in such a way that encourages exporters rather than hindering exports; For example, the imposition of duties in the field of decorative stones caused a sharp drop in exports in this sector,” Dehghan Dehnavi explained.

The official went on to say that the fourth factor is the imposition of redundant regulations and the instability of regulations.

“The accumulation of regulations has led to the country's export process being severely disrupted. Today the exporters are unhappy since they are caught in a web of regulations in such a way that they prefer not to export at all,” he regrated.

Regarding the revival of the Export Development High Council, the official said: “In a meeting we had with First Vice President Mohammadreza Aref, it was decided that the first meeting of the High Council will be held soon.”

EF/MA