Tehran, Iran, Sept.24
Trend:
Iran's exports goods are mostly destined for Iraq, China, Afghanistan and the Emirates, but new destinations and proper infrastructure can increase the volume, said the secretary general of Iran Export Confederation.
Jamshid Nafar discussed Iran's exports and potential to trade with eastern European countries in an interview with Trend.
"Our country has great potential for exports. If we have a correct road map and and solve the problems, the eastern Europe could be a good market," he said.
"Iran has traditionally exported nuts to Eastern Europe and the exports continue, but the volume is not significant," he noted.
"Unfortunately, the target markets of our exports in recent years were only Iraq, China, Afghanistan and the Emirates. Iraq and Afghanistan can not be sustainable destination; China mostly imports Iran's oil and petrochemical products, while the Emirates mostly re-export Iranian goods," he added.
"Organizing export to Western Europe and Schengen states is not so easy, as their standards are high and they can import goods from all over the world. Iran's exports to Europe have become insignificant, although the volume was bigger previously," he said referring to Iran's exports to Western Europe.
"The tariff agreement is one of the important issues; if we want to join free economy, the tariff should be reduced to be competitive. Unfortunately, today sanction is the key problem, as some countries are not interested to have trade with Iran due to this issue," he said referring to Iran and Europe tariff agreements.
"Apart from sanctions that is an important factor, there are other issues. We do not have good infrastructures. The exports to far destinations have high costs and if we constructed such infrastructure, then exports would be facilitated," he added.
"I think the exports potential is high and we can even increase it. We have always depended on oil and waned to create proper industrial and economic infrastructure for oil, but we also need to increase our other exports opportunities," he said.
"It's not certain for how long Afghanistan and Iraq continue to imports our goods. Most of our non-oil exports goes to Iraq, the UAE, China and Afghanistan, and their share in the export volume varies between 65 and 75 percent," he added.