TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran and Uzbekistan yesterday explored ways for boosting their cooperation on the customs affairs and trade relations during the meeting between Head of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Alireza Moqaddasi and visiting Deputy Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Mr. Bakhtiyar Rakhimov.
During the meeting, both Iranian and Uzbek sides explored ways for boosting trade between the two countries as well as cooperation on the customs affairs.
In the meeting Moqaddasi pointed to the capabilities of IRICA in implementing customs projects based on modern information technologies and possibility of sharing its experiences with Customs Administration of Uzbekistan and called for boosting cooperation on the customs affairs as well as trade exchanges between the two states in the framework of the signed agreements and economic pacts. He then announced readiness of the IRICA for easing and accelerating the Customs formalities of the commercial goods as well as the transit and transport of the goods.
Touching upon the eTIR, Moqaddasi said Iran has achieved some successes in this field as it has implemented this project with Turkey as the pilot plan, adding that the customs administrations of Iran and Uzbekistan can have good cooperation with just signing a simple agreement.
He then pointed to the policies of the Islamic Republic regarding the boost in cooperation in the field of customs and trade with neighboring and friendly countries, and said the cooperation in the field of customs can include fighting the smuggle of goods and combating with the fake documents through e-exchange of information.
Moqaddasi noted that one of the concerns of the customs office is the smuggle of drugs and for this reason, some advanced x-ray-equipped devices have been installed at the border checkpoints and customs of Iran like at Lotfabad, Bazargan, Sarakhs, Dowqarun and Incheboron and it can boost the security of the trade.
He also invited his Uzbek counterpart for signing a MoU for cooperation on the customs affairs in the future.
Then Rakhimov who is leading the Uzbek delegation to Tehran, for his part, expressed his satisfaction over the meeting and voiced the interest of his country for expansion of cooperation with Iran on the customs affairs and trade exchanges and expressed hope that with signing the MoU on bilateral cooperation, the trade volume of the two countries would increase more.
He then pointed to the emphasis of presidents of the two countries for broadening economic and trade cooperation and said that all existing capacities should be used for enhancing the bilateral trade.
Rakhimov noted that Uzbekistan has prepared a MoU which is ready to be signed and the draft for MoU on TIR project is ready to be signed. On the e-exchange of customs information, he said condition should be provided for the project to be operationalized.
He also called for formation of a specialized group for exchange of information and answering to questions of those who are involved in the trade and transport, adding that a new level of co-operations between the customs and trade officials of the two countries should start.
Rakhimov reiterated that Uzbekistan wants more trade and exchange of information with Iran and to this end,two cooperation documents are under study to have the final signing.
According to the statistics, the trade between Iran and Uzbekistan in 9 months this year has exceeded $407m that Iran’s share of trade is $310m while Uzbekistan has exported goods worth $97m in this period. The studies show that the trade between the two countries is gradually on the rise.
