TEHRAN - Head of the Iran-South Korea Joint Chamber of Commerce has announced the trade between the two countries is expected to resume in the next three to five months, IRNA reported.

According to Hossein Tanhaei, the two sides have agreed to exchange machinery and technical equipment instead of money exchange for their trade.

In an interview with IRNA on Sunday, Tanhaei said South Korean officials and businessmen have been coming to Iran more frequently in recent months.

“With the easing of sanctions, small and medium-sized companies in this country (South Korea) are making great efforts to resume trade with Iran, and on the other hand, large companies in South Korea have also announced their readiness to re-join the Iranian business scene,” the official said.

Emphasizing that trade with South Korea is expected to begin in the next three to five months, he added: "As for Iran's blocked money in this country, it is stipulated that instead of paying in cash or exchanging manufactured goods, technical equipment and machinery will be exported to Iran.”

He stated that Iran and South Korea had already experienced $4 billion in annual trade, adding: “If the agreements between the two sides are implemented in the coming months, and given the interest of traders to join these economic exchanges, we can expect this figure to recover quickly.”

“South Korean market is rich in terms of technical, electronic and petrochemical items and a high volume of trade in this field can be put on the agenda,” Tanhaei stated.

Back in April, South Korea had released $30 million of the Islamic Republic’s frozen oil money in the Asian country to be used for purchasing COVID-19 vaccine.

According to Tanhaei, South Korea had reached an agreement with the Islamic Republic on releasing $1 billion of the mentioned frozen funds but so far only a small portion of this agreement has been realized.

Once one of Iran’s major oil buyers, South Korea has reduced its trade with Iran and held back the release of several billions of dollars of Iranian oil money under the pressure from the White House.

EF/MA