TEHRAN (Iran News) – UAE Replaces China as Top Exporting Country to Iran. Chairman of Iran-UAE Joint Chamber of Commerce Farshid Farzanegan says Iran-UAE trade is growing upward, adding that statistics indicate that the trade balance is becoming negative for Iran which provides no appropriate condition for the national economy and it means the rise in sales of raw material and resources.
Speaking to IRNA, Farzanegan said that statistics show that the UAE is the top exporting country to Iran and replacing China, emphasizing that in the first month of the current Iranian calendar year, Iran’s imports from the UAE hit $788m while the figure was $656m for China, $247m for Turkey, $133m for India and $132m for Russia and Russia replaced Germany as the major exporting European country of Iran.
He went on to say that in the field of export, the UAE has ranked the third among importing countries from Iran while in the same period, China’s imports from Iran hit $974m while Iraq’s was $428m, the UAE’s was $417m and Turkey’s imports from Iran hit $177m which showed a considerable growth comparing to the preceding year.
Farzanegan stated that the world trade in the first quarter of 2021 has witnessed 10 percent lower leap comparing to the same period in 2020, adding that the major driving force of trade growth is exports of East Asian economies and the trade of developed countries will gradually be reinforced. He said that it is predicted that world economy’s improvement would be faster in the second quarter of 2021 than the two previous economic recessions.
On the expectations from the new government in Iran, he said the country expects control of liquidity and monetary base, single-digit inflation rate, improving the business climate, prioritizing the small and medium-sized companies, boosting competiveness in the economy, reforming the economic structure, improving the unemployment rate, boosting productivity and resolving the water shortage and waste of energy.
Farzanegan also said that interaction with the world and especially with neighboring states, African countries, India and China and with having double-approach towards the West and the East are of the major demands of the economic activists.
He noted that the increase of trade volume is very important in exports and imports, adding that expansion of exports without growth in imports means sale of the raw material. He said imports of the raw material and required equipment in the production lines will lead to the rise in the production of goods and consequently it will lead to creating more jobs and decline in export of raw materials.
Farzanegan went on to say that imports of 15 neighboring countries of Iran is valued at over $1,160b, adding that Iran accounts only for two percent of this figure while the UAE is the major exporter in the region with exporting over $261b. He said by improving the strategic plans for exporting to these countries, Iran can have more shares of the regional market.
He blamed the cost of Iran’s transportation which is very higher than international level even with lower quality which needs to be resolved because it affects strongly the trade.
Farzanegan said that one of the reasons for the rise of the UAE’s exports to Iran is that other countries’ goods are exported to the UAE and then they are re-exported to Iran from the UAE and it is not good thing in the trade because it increases the cost of imports of the goods into the country.
He reiterated that Iran’s cooperation with the UAE has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is expected the trade between the two states to have upward trend.
