Tehran, Iran, January 25
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
New grounds are being prepared which will lead to a boost of export from Iran to Russia, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanaei said in a meeting with a trade delegation from Iran's Trade Development Organization.
He said the two countries ties are strengthening at a fast pace, noting numerous exchange of trade delegations in the past months, IRNA news agency reported January 25.
Iran has just been freed of economic sanctions under a deal with the group P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) that came into force January 16. Russia played a key role as Iran's supporter in bringing the deal home.
But Moscow recently found itself in a row with Turkey which used to be its big trade partner. Following the downing of a Russia fighter in Syria by Turkey, Russian President Vladimir Putin banned the imports of agricultural products from Turkey.
With the Moscow-Ankara developments, Iran and Russia signed important contracts on agricultural, aquatics, and dairy products export.
According to Sanaei, a banking problem that used to afflict trade transactions between Iran and Russia has also been eased to a great extent and is expected to be fully lifted in near future as Iran is now free of international sanctions.
Regarding the issue of tariffs which has been hampering Iran export to Russia, the official expressed hope that the problem will soon be obviated by using the Russian Federal Custom Service's green channel (aka green corridor).
Moscow has given the go-ahead to four Iranian agribusiness exporters to start supplying Russia with milk dairy products and is ready to set up a 'green corridor' for agricultural supplies from Iran, its Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev said January 19.
"We need to establish modern logistics [for the transportation] of Iranian goods to Russia, to create a 'green corridor' on the Russian border for Iranian goods and to ease customs formalities to speed up clearance of Iranian cargoes," he explained after a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Hojjati.
"We have inspected [some] Iranian dairy companies that will start exporting their products to Russia in the near future... A reliable mechanism of settlements in national currencies should also be established," he added.
According to Sanaei, Iran is also going to use Eurasian Customs Union privileges to reduce the burden of tariffs on its tradesmen dealing with Russian counterparts.