Turkey plans to triple trade with Iran in the next five years, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, according to the Financial Times.
"Our bilateral trade ties have reached $10bn ... When we remove the barriers to trade between ourselves, when we complete our preferential trade agreement we can reach a bilateral trade volume of $30bn in five years," Erdogan told businessmen at a summit aimed at lowering tariffs between the two countries.
Samet Inanir, an adviser at the trade relations board DEIK, said of the $30bn trade target: "We should consider Turkey and Iran as if they were France and Germany."
Many Turkish companies say that prohibitively high tariffs and barriers to investment are bigger obstacles to doing business in Iran than sanctions.
"I promise the obstacles to Turkish merchants will be lifted," said Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi who was visiting Turkey.