Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran conducts half of its total trade with its neighboring countries, said Ebrahim Rahimpour, the Iranian deputy foreign minister.
The neighboring countries constituted 50 percent of Iran's total $140 billion annual trade, Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Rahimpour as saying on April 20.
"In trade with the neighboring countries, we should not just seek gain as much as profit, but we should seek to develop all-out ties with them," he added.
The administration is following a policy to get rid of the state-run economy and expand the private sector, he added.
Iranian Deputy Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mojtaba Khosrotaj has said that despite sanctions imposed by UN, EU and US on Iran over its nuclear program, the country's annual trade amounted to $150 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20.
Iran transacted non-oil goods with 177 countries in the previous Iranian fiscal year, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
The balance of trade with 91 countries was positive.
Iran had the highest positive trade balance with Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Egypt, and Azerbaijan, while it registered the highest negative trade balance with the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Switzerland, China, and Germany.
Edited by CN