TEHRAN – Deputy Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Mohammadreza Karbasi met with Iran’s ambassador to Russia through video conference on Saturday to discuss ways of facilitating trade between the two countries.

The meeting was attended by Iran’s commercial attaché in Russia, the country’s consular officer in Astrakhan, the chairman of the Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce, the director-general of Customs Office of International Cooperation, representatives of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as some businessmen, ICCIMA news portal reported.

As reported, reviewing the latest situation of commodity traffic on the borders of Iran and Russia, presenting the existing problems and suggestions to solve them, discussing suggestions for removing transit and trade barriers for export and import of goods with Russia, presenting the latest status of maritime transport in the Caspian Sea and future plans, explaining the latest customs measures and proposals for the continuation of trade with Russia were among the most important topics discussed at the meeting.

Lack of refrigerated containers, transportation problems, banking problems, the impossibility of opening an LC, as well as money transfer problems were among the most important issues that the participants in this virtual meeting mentioned as obstacles to improving Iran-Russia trade.

In the meeting, Karbasi also presented some data on trade with the members of the Eurasian Economic Union and said that the volume of Iran's trade with this union before the preferential trade agreement amounted to $605 million in terms of exports and $1.486 billion in terms of imports, but the total trade grew by 14 percent to $2.417 billion by June 20.

In this regard, he underlined the importance of free trade with Eurasian countries especially with Russia, and added: "Considering the importance of Russia, the first representative office of the Iran Chamber of Commerce will begin its activities in Astrakhan in the near future."

EF/MA