TERHAN- According to the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), Iran’s non-oil exports to its two western neighbors, Iraq and Turkey, increased by 50 percent in terms of weight during the first 10 months of the present Iranian calendar year (ending on January 20, 2019), IRNA reported on Monday.

As reported, by January 20, Iraq imported 16.74 million tons of goods, at the value of $7.51 billion from Iran registering 53 percent growth in terms of weight and 44.75 percent rise in terms of value.

Turkey, in the said 10-month-period, imported 6.2 million tons of Iranian non-oil products worth $2.25 billion, showing a growth of 21.33 percent in terms of value and 54.58 percent in terms of weight.

The total value of the country’s non-oil exports touched $36.36 billion, registering 2.21 percent increase year-on-year in the said time, the same report confirmed.

China, Iraq, the EU, Afghanistan, Turkey, India, South Korea, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Oman were the major importers of Iranian products in this time span.

On February 3, the IRICA Head Mehdi Mirashrafi announced in a news conference that “the U.S. sought to impede Iran’s international trade by imposing cruel and unilateral sanctions on the country but our trade with the world is being done easily and we are not in lack of any type of basic goods.”

“During the first 10 months of the present Iranian calendar year Iran exported $36.3 billion of [non-oil] goods and imported $35.6 billion,” Mirashrafi said, “which is equal to a positive trade balance of one billion dollars.”

“This happened under the conditions that the U.S. tried to avert our exports and impede imports,” he added.

HJ/MA