TEHRAN – The value of Iran’s non-oil trade with member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has increased by 29 percent in the spring, which is the first quarter of the Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Ruhollah Latifi said on Thursday.

Latifi said the country has traded 12.34 million tons of non-oil goods worth $9.856 billion with the 11 member states of SCO in the spring, IRNA reported.

Iran has exported 10.213 million tons of goods worth $5.513 billion to the SCO members in this period, registering a 20 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year.

Moreover, the Islamic Republic has imported 2.167 million tons of goods worth $4.342 billion from the mentioned countries in Q1, indicating a 41-percent increase compared to last year’s same time span.

Among SCO members, China was Iran’s top export destination in the said period followed by India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Mongolia.

China was also the top exporter to Iran, followed by India, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia.

Iran was granted long-awaited permanent membership of the SCO last year and is now completing formalities to make it official.

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.

EF/MA