TEHRAN- The value of Iran’s non-oil export to Iraq rose 21 percent during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-August 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, an official with Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced.

Abdol-Amir Rabihavi, the director of the West Asia Office of the TPO, said that Iran exported non-oil goods worth over $4.5 billion to Iraq in the five-month period of this year, while the figure was $3.508 billion in the same time span of the previous year.

Iraq is a strategic neighbor of Iran and Iran-Iraq annual trade stands at about $10 billion, he noted.

In late May, the head of the Department of Spatial Planning and Regional Planning of the Iranian Plan and Budget Organization said that Iran exports some 2,200 products, valued at $12 billion, to neighboring Iraq annually.

Speaking in a meeting entitled “Reviewing opportunities and challenges of attracting Iraqi investors and strengthening trade relations between the two countries in line with demarcating Iran in the regional value chain”, Jafar Hosseini said that Iraq, benefiting from $85 billion foreign exchange reserves, 130 tons of gold reserves, and 147 billion barrels of proven reserves of crude oil, is among the richest countries in West Asia.

He went on to say that Iran’s exports to Iraq have increased 15-fold over the past 20 years, rising from about $600 million in 2003 to more than $10 billion last year (ended March 19, 2024).

Currently, Iran exports over 2,200 various types of goods and products to Iraq, he said, adding that more than half of the active Iranian traders are present in the Iraqi market, IRNA reported

Developing the trade infrastructures to facilitate trade between the two countries, encouraging traders to invest in Iraq, promoting trade through dispatching and admitting trade delegations and participating in exhibitions of the two countries, etc. are suggested to strengthen the trade and economic relations between Iran and Iraq, he underlined.

As announced by the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the value of Iran’s non-oil trade with its neighbors increased by 16 percent in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year to reach $26.857 billion.

Mohammad Rezvanifar put the weight of non-oil trade with the neighboring countries at 43.579 million tons in the said period, noting that the trade between the two sides also increased by 10 percent in terms of weight, IRNA reported.

During the mentioned five months, Iran exported 34.118 million tons of goods worth $13.402 billion to its neighbors, while importing 9.461 million tons of commodities valued at $13.455 billion.

Iran’s exports to neighboring countries in the first five months of this year compared to the same period last year increased by 11 percent in terms of weight and 19 percent in terms of value, respectively; and imports from neighboring countries increased by 10 percent and 13 percent respectively in terms of weight and value, according to Rezvanifar.

He named Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as the top importers of Iranian goods among the neighboring countries, and the UAE, Turkey, Russia, Oman, and Pakistan as the main sources of imports in the said five months.

Increasing non-oil exports to the neighboring countries is one of the major plans that the Iranian government has been pursuing in recent years.

Iran shares land or water borders with 15 countries namely UAE, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Saudi Arabia.

As previously announced by the IRICA head, the value of Iran’s non-oil export increased by 10 percent during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Rezvanifar said that the country exported 60.5 million tons of non-oil products valued at $21.9 billion during the five-month period of this year, also indicating seven percent growth in terms of weight, year on year.

He named petrochemical products as the major non-oil item exported and China, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India as the top export destinations of the Iranian non-oil goods in the first five months of this year.

The official further said that the country has imported 15.7 million tons of non-oil products worth $26.3 billion in the first five months of the present year, with 5.53 percent and 7.93 percent growth in terms of value and weight, respectively, as compared to the same time span in the previous year.

Rezvanifar named raw gold as the main imported item, and the UAE, China, Turkey, Germany, India, Russia, and Hong Kong as the major sources of import in the mentioned five-month period.

MA