Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 13 /Trend A.Akhundov/
Unsolved political issues related to the WTO and EU need to be resolved to establish Free Economic Zone (FEZ) between Turkey and Iran, Deputy Director of the Department on FEZ at the Turkish Prime Ministry Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade, Necmi Ugurlu told Trend.
"We received an appeal from Iran on creating a joint FEZ and have already held bilateral meetings. However, the process is temporarily suspended due to political issues", Ugurlu said.
The sides will pay a particular attention to different spheres of production in case of establishing a joint FEZ.
"The attention generally will be paid to textile, machinery and chemical industries", Ugurlu said.
He said the Turkish law provides for substantial tax benefits for businessmen operating in the FEZs.
"They are exempted from customs duties and VAT. Rates on all other taxes are significantly reduced. The big benefits are granted to those who build their production directly in FEZ and invests there," Ugurlu said.
The U.N. Security Council adopted another resolution, which provides for new sanctions against Tehran in connection with its refusal to cease uranium enrichment on June 9 2010. After adopting Resolution 1929, the U.S. Congress passed a bill on unilateral anti-Iran sanctions on June 24 last year. Later, in July, EU leaders, and later foreign ministers, proposed at a meeting in Brussels additional sanctions against Iran. On Oct. 25, EU foreign ministers approved imposing additional sanctions against Iran at a meeting in Luxembourg.
Restrictions imposed by the EU include the ban on the sale of equipment, technologies and services to Iran's energy sector. This is also applied to oil refining industries. Also new investment in Iran's energy sector is also banned as a whole.
Based on the Turkish Prime Ministry Undersecretariat's data, the trade turnover between Turkey and Iran reached $9.604 billions in January-November 2010, which is more by 95.16 percent compared to January-November 2009.