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Afghani official enumerates problems in trade with Iran

Business Materials 25 April 2015 22:55 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, April 25

By Temkin Jafarov, Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently said that Iran's Chabahar port is like oxygen for Afghanistan because of its strategic situation for trade between the two countries.

Trade between Iran and Afghanistan is currently underway in other ports such as Anzali, Neka, Imam Khomeini, and Bandar Abbas as well.

The two countries' mutual trade is in the traditional form and has been a robust example of it, Trade Attaché at the Afghan Embassy in Tehran Abdolhadi Farhang told Trend on April 25.

However, he added, there have been problems that have crippled the trade.

One of the problems is that Afghani products are quarantined for 3 months each before entering the Iranian market; whereas the same products have been exported to other countries such as Japan, India, Germany, Finland, and the Persian Gulf littoral countries without any problem, Farhang pointed out.

He noted that special facilities for Afghani tradesmen such as visa regulations would help trade between Iran and Afghanistan greatly.

The official further said that lack of railroads has hugely increased transit costs between the two countries.

Trade turnover between Iran and Afghanistan is aimed to reach $4 billion.

Afghanistan was the fourth biggest importer of Iranian goods during the first seven months of the past Iranian fiscal year (March 21 - October 22, 2014).

Iran exported $1.335 billion worth of goods to its eastern neighbor during the period.

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