TEHRAN- Iran has exported $2 billion of commodities to Turkey in 2020, the head of Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce announced.

Putting Iran’s imports from Turkey at $2.254 billion in 2020, Mehrdad Sa’adat said, “Iran-Turkey trade declined highly in 2020, while we had experienced an annual bilateral trade of $15 billion, and meanwhile our target is to reach $30 billion”.

Different factors led to decline in trade between the two neighbors in the previous year, among them the U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic were the most outstanding ones, he noted.

Saying that Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce is looking for a roadmap to improve trade transactions between the two sides, Sa’adat said, “In this regard, last year, the issue of trade ethics between the two countries was addressed and some indicators were selected in this field, because if we want to improve the volume of trade and achieve the goals, we must take action to solve the root problems.”

“Preliminary studies have shown that many problems arise from business ethics that need to be addressed in order to alleviate the problems that traders are struggling with, and this issue was addressed last year, and we hope for a favorable outcome”, he added.

During the 27th meeting of Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Committee, which was held in Ankara in mid-September, the two sides investigated different ways of reaching the targeted $30-billion bilateral trade and reiterated that reaching this figure is possible despite the pressures of the U.S. sanctions.

During the meeting, the Iranian president’s chief of staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, who is the Iranian chairman of the committee, mentioned expediting the process of implementing bilateral agreements on trade and economic issues as the most prioritized objective of the joint committee and said Iran has no limitation for expanding and deepening cooperation with Turkey.

MA/MA