TEHRAN- The value of trade between Iran and the U.S. has dropped 51 percent during the first five months of 2020, compared to the same period of time in the past year, Eghtesad Online news website reported.

As reported, the Iran-U.S. trade stood at $20 million during the five-month period of this year.

Iran's imports from the United States stood at $17.1 million during the same period.

The Iran-U.S. trade amounted to $74.5 million in 2019 and registered an 84.97-percent decline compared to the year before.

In 2018, trade between the two countries increased by 155 percent from 2017. However, after the re-imposition of the U.S. economic and energy sanctions on Iran at the end of 2018, the bilateral trade has fallen drastically.

While the U.S. has re-imposed sanctions on the Iranian economy, the Islamic Republic has been adopting a number of strategies to nullify the sanctions, among them strengthening domestic production to reach more and more self-reliance, and boosting non-oil exports, especially to the neighboring countries, are two major ones.

The previous Iranian calendar year (March 2019-March 2020) was named the year of “Pickup in Production” and the current year is the year of “Surge in Production”, highlighting the significance of production status in the country.

Meanwhile, the country has made doubling non-oil exports to its neighbors a top agenda.