Tehran, Brasilia Urged to Seriously Pursue Barter Trade
Tehran, Brasilia Urged to Seriously Pursue Barter Trade
During a webinar held last week, Iran and Brazil were urged to seek seriously barter trade to increase their bilateral trade.

TEHRAN (Iran News) – During a webinar held last week, Iran and Brazil were urged to seek seriously barter trade to increase their bilateral trade.

In a webinar on reviewing potential and capacities for cooperation between Iran and Brazil, both sides called for finding ways to enhance trade ties and participants called for boosting the trade volume to $1b.

Head of International Affairs of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Mr. Mohammad Reza Karbasi said that the trade balance between Iran and Brazil is one-sided and despite agreements over bartering oil with goods, the oil exports have not been possible and Iran should diversify its basket of export goods to Brazil, adding that beside petrochemical products, dried fruits and porcelains are the other fields which have export potentials.

He reiterated that both countries should gradually move towards a balance in their bilateral trade, adding that for example signing of preferential and free trades with Brazil should be pursued by the state bodies and be signed by the two countries.

Karbasi said that Brazil and its neighbors are a 400-million-population market and at the same time Iran has the same capacity and both countries should have a long-term approach for their cooperation.

He noted that he has recently met with representatives of other Latin American countries and all of them are keen along with Brazil to expand their trade with Iran, adding that with the existing capacities of Iran and Brazil, there is possibility for the joint cooperation.

Then Iran’s Ambassador to Brazil Mr Hossein Gharibi, for his part, said that Brazil has a big agro and livestock products markets, adding that the country in the industrial sector is one of the biggest producers of cars with having 26 car-making companies and producing 3m cars per year whose revenues including the sales of auto-parts exceeds $100b.

He said that the trade volume of Iran and Brazil directly and indirectly was over $4b in 2019. He said in 2019, Iran’s urea was introduced to Brazil’s market and in the shortest time the volume of export of urea to Brazil surpassed millions of tons as the demand for this product is very high in Brazil. He added that there is also huge demand in Brazil for petrochemical products like bitumen, methanol and polymers, reiterating that bitumen has a $200m market in Brazil.

Gharibi reiterated that to balance the bilateral trade, two actions should be taken: maintaining the current level of exports and diversification of the exporting items. He noted that one of the grounds for expansion of trade with Brazil is to resolve the banking problems.

He reiterated that there have been some talks between the two countries on transporting goods by ship and a shipping line is to be launched by two countries but it needs providing ships with fuel in Brazil’s ports. He noted the opening of the Iran-Brazil trade office in Sao Paulo will have help considerably the trade ties between Iran and Brazil.

Gharibi emphasized that Brazil has a positive policy regarding the Middle East and therefore Iran should strengthen its position in the West Asia in trade with Brazil because countries in the region like the UAE, Bahrain and Oman are currently improving their trade with Brazil.

Then Head of Iran-Brazil Joint Chamber of Commerce Mr. Fakhroddin Amerian, for his part, said that the issue of bartering trade between the two states should be seriously pursued and by the way Iran should increase its exports to Brazil to $1b and the country should use its bargaining levers for easing exports to Brazil.

He said the chamber is working to hire chartered 60,000-ton ships for import of livestock inputs and to serve the importers.