TEHRAN – Deputy Minister of Economy and Director General of Iran’s Customs Administration (IRICA) Alireza Moghaddasi hsas said that in the first 10 months this Iranian year, more than 10, 228, 000 tons of foreign goods were transited through Iran, indicating a 75% compared to the same period of last year.
Moghaddasi explianed the volume transit and said that 75% growth in transit through Iran was recorded in the first 10 months this Iranian year of 1,400 (beginning on March 21, 2021).
Moghaddasi said that one of the important policies of the 13th government is to develop trade with neighbors and facilitate transit of foreign trade through the Islamic Republic of Iran.
According to the implementation of the policies of the resistance economy and the fifth and sixth development plans of the country, every year we should have witnessed a 10% growth in transit in the country, which unfortunately was not realized, the IRICA head said.
He said that Iran is located at the junction of the south-north and east-west corridors, and different other important corridors for transit that link the neighboring countries to each other which with the measures taken by the new administration in Iran can lead to the further growth of the country’s transit capabilities.
March-December Imports Included U.S. Shipments Worth $70mn
Meanwhile, figures published by the Iranian trade and customs bodies show that imports into the country in the three quarters to December 21 included nearly $70 million worth of shipments from the United States.
American exports to Iran in March-December last year had amounted to $69.345 million, up 17% from March-December 2020, a report by the semi-official ILNA news agency said that.
The report cited figures by the Iranian customs office (IRICA) and the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO).
It said that Iran’s exports to the U.S. over the same three quarters in 2021 had totaled at only $0.248 million although it added that shipments had increased by 253% year on year.
The figures come despite the fact that Iran and the U.S. have no diplomatic relations and trade ties have reached record lows since 2018 when Washington abandoned an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and imposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran.
Figures by IRICA and TPO showed that the U.S. was the 30th largest exporter to Iran in the calendar year to late March 2021 with $79.7 million worth of shipments.
Bilateral trade between Iran and the U.S. declined by nearly 40% over the period against the year to March 2020 as US sanctions affected more businesses and goods last year.
Experts say decreased Iranian trade with the U.S. and other Western countries has hardly affected the economic situation in the country as they insist that U.S. sanctions have caused a boom in Iran’s trade with neighbors and other parts of the world.