Pointing to the Eurasian Economic Union’s $380 billion market, a deputy head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization has said Iran imports inputs, raw materials, and essential goods from the Union’s member states while exporting industrial and manufactured goods to them.
Mohammad-Sadeq Ghanadzadeh, Deputy for International Business Development at Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, told a radio interview on the progress of the Iran–EAEU agreement that the free trade agreement between Iran and the EAEU’s five member states — the product of extensive national work — was signed on 4 Dey this year (25 December 2023).
Noting that all six countries must ratify the agreement and its document in their own parliaments for promulgation and entry into force, he added that it is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s first multilateral free trade document — and good practice for future multilateral agreements in the country.
Pointing to the 13th government’s policy of multilateralism and expanding international ties, the deputy said Iran has joined numerous multilateral pacts around the world, all of them offering strong economic and trade potential.
Ghanadzadeh called the signing of the EAEU agreement one of the best exercises in developing multilateral accords, adding that Iran imports inputs, raw materials, and essential goods from the Union’s member states — and can, in return, export higher value-added goods, industrial products, and manufactured goods to them.
He described access to the EAEU countries’ $380 billion market as a huge window opening up for the country’s economy, adding that under the agreement Iran is zeroing tariffs on 87% of its traded-goods tariff lines — bringing down the tariff wall that stood in front of Iranian exporters and their counterparts from the five countries.
The Need for Rapid Logistics Development
The deputy stressed the need for rapid logistics development, saying that transport and transit infrastructure is a serious issue that must be addressed, as is financial transfer infrastructure — the latter largely resolved with Russia and now on the agenda.
Highlighting the importance of connecting with the business communities of the EAEU member states, Ghanadzadeh said the Trade Promotion Organization has drawn up a special programme for exchanging trade delegations — Iranian participation in the member states’ exhibitions and their participation in international exhibitions — to build mutual familiarity.
On the private sector’s role in the Eurasia agreement, he added that the government has laid the rails — and from now on, it is the private sector’s turn to step up and become active in this field.
Leave a Reply