TEHRAN- The value of trade between Iran and the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) hit $23.165 billion in the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2020 – February 18, 2021), the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Ruhollah Latifi put the weight of commodities traded between the two sides at over 41.747 million tons, IRNA reported.

Iran has cross-border trade with 11 key member states and observer states of the Shanghai Agreement, including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Belarus, among them the largest volume of trade is with China which is $15.518 billion, the IRICA spokesman stated.

He put Iran’s export to the SCO members at 33.339 million tons valued at $11.173 billion during the mentioned 11-month period, and said the highest amount of export has been to China, which was $6.724 billion, and the lowest was to Mongolia, which was $412,809.

Iran’s imports from the mentioned countries stood at 8.408 million tons worth $11.991 billion in the said time span, Latifi said, adding the highest amount of imports was from China ($8.793 billion), and the lowest was from Mongolia ($2.448 million).

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), or Shanghai Pact, is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance, the creation of which was announced on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter, formally establishing the organization, was signed in June 2002 and entered into force on September 19, 2003.

MA/MA