TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Iran-Brazil Joint Chamber of Commerce Seyed Fakhreddin Amerian says two Brazilian banks accept the forex of Iranian goods via intermediary banks but the chamber is after setting up a fund in Brazil for the channeling of the forex resulted from exports and imports.
Speaking to ILNA on the latest development in the trade between Iran and Brazil, he said Iran’s annual imports from Brazil are over $5b which is mainly basic goods like meat, chicken and oil and in return Iran’s exports to Brazil are at $150m.
He added that Brazil demands goods like urea, methanol, bitumen, hand-woven carpet and some agro products, stating that Brazil imports huge amount of petrochemicals but Iran’s share of it has not been significant and banking problem as well as transfer of money have been the main reasons for this insignificance share.
Touching upon Iran’s proposal of barter trade with Brazil which was raised by the Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization meeting with Brazilian Ambassador, Amerian said that the main problem in way of the barter trade is 4200-toman dollar rate because commodities like basic goods are calculated based on the 4200-toman dollar while goods like urea are calculated based on the NIMA-rate dollar, adding that so the Iran’s Central Bank (CBI) is unable to remove this hurdle but with removal of this hurdle, barter trade with Brazil is possible.
He said that ambassadors of the two countries are working hard to resolve this problem for restoring barter trade but as long as the CBI does not step in and resolve the forex rate, this will not happen.
On the banking cooperation of Brazil and Iran, he said two Brazilian banks are cooperating on transfer of the forex of Iranian goods via intermediary banks but the chamber is looking for establishment of a fund that the forex resulted from imports and exports can be transferred into it. He said this is like what Iran is doing now with Russia, expecting hope Brazil would do the same.
Amerian admitted the custom offices of the two countries can not publish official statistics on the trade between the two states, adding that but the statistics of the Brazilian Custom Office show that Brazil’s exports to Iran are valued at around $1.3b but some companies are unable to register their goods to Iran and they use other destination names like Turkey. He added that Iran also sends its goods to Dubai and the consignment is taken to Brazil by other ship via the cross-off and therefore Dubai is the embarking destination.
He reiterated that the real statistics show that the amount of Brazil’s exports to Iran is over $5b and Iran’s exports are valued at $150m.
He said the joint chamber has been set up for five years to resolve the problems for trade between the two countries and recently it has opened its office in Dao Paulo of Brazil.
