BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.3
Trend:
Political issues have prevented Iran's membership in international and regional trade agreements, said the head of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce Majid Harriri, Trend reports via ILNA.
"Due to political issues, we could not work with other banks and use the advantage of financing for projects or attract foreign investors easily," said Harriri.
"Establishing bilateral or multilateral ties and especially participation in projects such as China's One Belt One Road require less international pressure, so countries have acceptable cooperation," he said.
"All the members in the World Trade Organization should accept the new members and due to political reasons and especially problems with the US, we've faced obstacles in joining the WTO," he said.
"The intermediary countries are having a hard time working with us due to sanctions," he said.
"Although the major part of businessmen in policy making level or private sector disagree with Iran joining the WTO, since if we become a member we could not ban imports of any commodities or impose high tariffs, while currently import of 4,000 items are banned," he said.
"Domestic commodities are currently not capable of competing with foreign goods that are partly due to high production costs and partly due to public support," he said.
"Any country that has joined the WTO benefited from this pact, and we're missing out on this," said Harriri.