Iran-Turkey Trade Down by 70% in Q1
IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK
TEHRAN – Trade between Iran and Turkey has declined significantly in the first quarter of 2020, a new report shows, as the two neighbors struggle to maintain exchanges despite the American sanctions imposed on Iran and a pandemic that has seriously affected movement across the borders.
The Tehran Chamber of Commerce, or TCCIMA, said in a survey published on Thursday that Iran-Turkey trade topped a total value of $645 million at the end of March, a decline of 70 percent compared to the first quarter of 2019.
It said Iran’s exports to Turkey totaled $270 million over the period, a slight increase compared to the last quarter of 2019 but significantly down from figures seen over the first three months of the same year.
The report insisted that a main reason for declining Iranian exports to Turkey, a trend visible since the end of the first quarter last year, was restrictions imposed by the United States on Iran’s trade of crude and petrochemicals.
Iran had maintained a trade surplus of over 1$ billion with Turkey at the beginning of 2019 mainly because of its growing exports of products derived from crude.
However, the TCCIMA survey said that Iranian petchem exports to Turkey declined by a staggering figure of 99 percent over the past year causing Iran’s balance of trade with Turkey to slide into the negative territory.
Trade deficit narrowed from $250 million in early 2019 to $117 million in the first quarter this year, said the report.
It said Iran’s total imports from Turkey amounted to $376 million over the first quarter, a decline of 35 percent compared to the similar period last year. The reduction was mainly blamed on fewer shipments of tobacco, plastic products and cardboard from Turkey into Iran.
The report concluded that first quarter trade between Iran and Turkey was significantly down in March when a new coronavirus pandemic caused a closure of border crossings between the two neighbors.
Meanwhile yesterday, Turkish media reported Turkey’s Customs Administration as saying that Turkey’s steel exports to Iran from January through April 2020 plunged by 55.3 percent compared to the same period in 2019, amounting to $10.4 million.
