TEHRAN (Iran News) – Chairman of the Iran-Japan Joint Trade Committee says Iran is a rich country with abundant capacities and is located on a strategic point of the world with high capabilities, and looking only eastward will be an injustice towards the country.
Speaking to ILNA on the latest development of trade between Iran and Japan, Bahram Shakouri said that Iran’s trade with Japan has almost been zeroed due to sanctions, adding that in the past, the country used to export crude oil to Japan but due to freezing of Iran’s money in Japan, the export of oil to this country was practically halted.
He went on to say that Japan is a country with high potentials and a big market for Iran’s exports and it is also a country with technology and innovation that Iran can provide any innovation, equipment, machineries and knowhow from this country and therefore Japanese goods are highly required in Iran.
On the plan of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) for trade with Iran, Shakouri said Iran’s chamber of commerce had a meeting with JETRO as the Japanese showed their interest for setting up cooperation between economic activists of the two countries.
He added that after the first meeting the Japanese vowed to continue because they have likely good prediction of the Vienna talks on the JCPOA and they feel the talks will bear fruits and they can restore economic ties with Tehran. Shakouri noted that the Japanese want to gradually know the potentials and relations between the economic enterprises to be restored in order to take advantage of ultimately.
Referring to the frozen money of Iran in Japan, he said talks are underway but nothing serious has happened yet in Tokyo, adding that it seems some moves have started by the Japanese Government and JETRO to resolve this problem and something which can unfreeze Iran’s assets is the probable agreement in Vienna.
He went on to say that if Iran’s ties with the world do not see any change, the Japanese will definitely not to work with Iran because they have several joint investment cooperation with the U.S. and they will be unable to disobey the Americans. Japan is a country which interacts with entire world and of course their interactions with the West are more but Japan is not a country which only works with the Eastern Bloc and it continues cooperation with all the world.
Shakouri went on to say that Iran should move in a direction that it can restore trade ties with all countries and it can lead to the development and progress of the company. He added that Iran has this potential to be a gateway between Europe and the U.S. with the countries in the region and it can turn into an export hub in the region and other countries like the CIS countries.
