TEHRAN – South Korea sent by air a shipment of medical supplies and medicine worth $500,000 needed for genetic diseases to Iran on Friday.

The government of the Republic of Korea continued close consultations with the United States and Iran in order to facilitate humanitarian trade with Iran with won-currency deposits made by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) at banks in the ROK. As a result of such consultations, the ROK government resumed humanitarian trade with Iran on April 6, which was suspended after the U.S. tightened sanctions on the CBI in September 2019.

The shipment of treatments for genetic diseases to Iran on May 29 will mark the first case of shipment of goods for the recently resumed humanitarian trade and is expected to be followed by exports of medicine and medical equipment worth about 2 million U.S. dollars in June.

In a bid to expand humanitarian trade with Iran, the ROK government has actively carried out activities, including two briefings for Korean exporters, consultations with Iran through such diplomatic channels as the Iranian Embassy in the ROK, meetings with Iranian importers through the Tehran office of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and acting as a bridge between importers and exporters of the two countries.

Building on the resumption of exports of humanitarian items, the ROK government will continue consultations with the U.S. and Iran on ways to broaden the scope of trade items to include not only medicine and medical equipment, which are currently the main trade items, but also foods and agricultural products, according to the Relief Web website.

FB/MG