TEHRAN - Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) is going to hold meetings of its Commodity-Country Desk on trade with Oman and Kuwait this week, director-general of TPO’s office of Arabian and African countries, Farzad Piltan, said.

As reported by the website of TPO on Sunday, the meetings are going to be focused on discussing the exports of industrial and mineral products, construction equipment and kitchenware to the mentioned countries, in order to increase the exports of such products.

According to Piltan, the meetings will be attended by representatives of government agencies and major exporting and importing companies, as well as representatives of the adjacent provinces.

In addition to reviewing the market of the mentioned products in Kuwait and Oman, opportunities and export strategies, latest political situation, security, and economic conditions, as well as laws, regulations, obstacles, and challenges for developing exports to these countries are also going to be discussed, the official said.

The value of Iran’s trade with its Arab trade partners in the region stood at about $22 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19).

The country exported about $12.5 billion worth of commodities to the mentioned countries in the said period, while importing about $9 billion.

The mentioned trade partners include Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

In terms of exports, Iraq was ranked Iran’s top export destination with about $9 billion worth of goods exported to the country, followed by the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Bahrain.

As for the imports, the UAE ranks the first with $8.7 billion worth of exports to Iran, followed by Oman, Iraq, and Jordan with $167 million, $131 million, and $21 million of imports respectively.

According to Iran’s trade data for the previous year, among the mentioned countries, the UAE ranked second among Iran's top trade partners and Iraq was the fourth while Oman was ranked 18th, Qatar 34th, Kuwait 39th, Syria 41st, Lebanon 62nd, Jordan 63rd, and Bahrain 88th.

EF/MG