TEHRAN- During a meeting between Indian Ambassador to Tehran Gaddam Dharmendra and Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) Masoud Khansari at the place of TCCIMA on Monday, the two sides emphasized the necessity to preserve Iran-India trade ties at the first step and expand it at the next stride.

In the meeting, Indian ambassador announced that the negotiation between Indian and Iranian officials on signing a preferential trade agreement (PTA) has been finalized.

During the previous (fourth) round of the negotiations on the said agreement, which was held in Tehran, the two countries discussed draft text of the pact which is to reduce tariff rates by 25%-45%.

And in the fifth round of the talks held at the place of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) in Tehran last week, some clauses of the pact remaining from the previous talks were reviewed and discussed.

In Monday meeting, Gaddam Dharmendra also announced that the finance for supplying necessary machinery to be installed in Iran’s southeastern port of Chabahar has been secured and the machinery and equipment will be installed at the port by the next two years.

After years of negotiation, Iran has awarded the development project of Chabahar port to India, and the South Asian country committed $500 million to build two new berths in this port.

However, after the U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran in November, 2018, the future of many Iranian projects including Chabahar port was shadowed by the consequences of the sanctions.

But following several rounds of negotiations and discussions with New Delhi, the U.S. administration finally exempted the Chabahar project from the sanctions.  

Addressing the meeting with the Indian ambassador, TCCIMA head emphasized that Iran and India should initiate some strategies to preserve their mutual trade under the sanctions condition, for example benefiting from bartering.

Khansari also reiterated that Chabahar port development is an important project to strengthen Iran-India trade relation, while lamenting about the speed of implementing this project.

MA/MA

Photo: Indian Ambassador to Tehran Gaddam Dharmendra (R) meets TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari on Monday.