Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 15
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Thailand, a small country in Southeast Asia is the 9th largest market of Iran’s non-oil goods.
The Islamic Republic exported $288 million worth of goods to the country during the first half of the current fiscal year (March 20-Sept. 22), which is equal to 1.4 percent of Iran’s total non-oil exports, according to the latest official data released by the Iranian customs administration.
Iran’s exports to Thailand registered a rise by 118 percent during the 6-month period, meanwhile the country’s overall exports decreased by 3.2 percent to $20.544 billion in the mentioned term.
Thailand and Iran agreed in October last year to a preferential trade agreement, a move intended to rev up bilateral commerce to $3 billion by 2021.
Both sides have agreed to cut import tariffs on 100 goods.
Iran is Thailand’s ninth largest trading partner in the Middle East. In 2016, mutual trade totaled $421 million, up 36.1 percent from a year before. Exports from Thailand reached $267 million, up 23.1 percent from 2015.
The Iranian custom administration’s report also indicates that the Islamic Republic’s other main trade partners are Asian countries as well.
Five countries, including China, Iraq, UAE, South Korea and India have imported 67.4 percent of Iran's total non-oil goods (including gas condensate) in terms of value, in the first half of the current fiscal year (March 20-Sept. 22).
China was the main importer of goods from Iran in the mentioned period. The country's imports accounted for 21 percent of Iran's total exports, in terms of value. During the period, Iran exported $4.313 billion worth of goods to China, which is by 7 percent more compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Iran also exported $3.18 billion worth of goods to Iraq (5 percent more year-on year), which marks 15.5 percent of Iran's total exports’ value.
The UAE ($2.953 billion, 17 percent fall), South Korea ($2.064 billion, 13 percent increase), India ($1.337 billion, -7%), Afghanistan ($1.199 billion, 2%), Turkey ($918 million, -41%), Pakistan ($355 million, -7%), Thailand ($288 million, 118%) and Oman ($278 million, -24%) were the other top importers of Iranian goods.