TEHRAN – Iran and Pakistan have reached an agreement to use barter trade in order to boost bilateral trade in the face of U.S. sanctions, Pakistani news outlets reported on Friday.

As reported by DAWN newspaper, the decision was announced by Pakistani Commerce Secretary Sualeh Faruqi in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce.

According to Sualeh, due to the lack of banking channels with Iran, some issues existed in trading with Tehran and the barter trade agreement is expected to resolve such issues. He further said that barter trade with Iran would start in a month.

Earlier this month, Iran and Pakistan had also announced that a free trade agreement between the two sides was going to be implemented within the next three months as the two sides looking to expand the annual trade exchanges to $5 billion by 2023.

The MOU for the new trade target was reached during the ninth meeting of the two countries’ Joint Economic Committee which was held on November 6 in Tehran.

Co-chaired by Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Reza Fatemi Amin and Pakistan’s Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, the meeting was attended by high-ranking Iranian and Pakistani officials as well as traders and businessmen from the two countries.

Banking relations, customs cooperation, border markets, barter trade, and coronavirus pandemic issues were among the subjects discussed at the meeting, after which the businessmen from the two sides held B2B meetings to explore avenues of mutual cooperation.

Speaking in the meeting, Fatemi Amin expressed Iran’s readiness for removing barriers in the way of the activities of Pakistani companies in Iran, saying: “With the measures taken, the existing barriers will be removed within the next three months and the trade processes will be facilitated. Hopefully, the Pakistani government will also provide Iranian companies with the same facilities.”

“By removing the existing problems and obstacles to the development of economic and trade cooperation between Iran and Pakistan the volume of trade between the two countries will increase to five billion dollars in the next two years,” he added.

EF/MA