TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) says the center for promoting trade with Russia has been activated in Iran and stressed that the license for setting up the Iran Trade Center in Russia has been issued that it will work as Iran’s trade embassy in Russia.
During a training workshop for trade with Russia which was held by the TPO for Iranian businessmen, the head of TPO Mr. Alireza Payman-Pak pointed to the statistics regarding Iran’s trade with Russia and said that European countries account for $80b of Russia’s total annual imports that has been affected by the sanctions after the Ukraine war.
He went on to say that it shows Russia is a big market that Iranian traders can make most of this market but unfortunately so far Iran has accounted for $58m out of the total $232b of Russia’s imports.
He then pointed to several meetings between the economic delegations of Iran and Russia and said that the TPO has put on the agenda some factors for promoting trade with Russia, adding that broadening the market is the most important factor and it means both sides should set some mechanisms that they can help Iranian and Russian traders to have proper connection and interaction.
Payman-Pak said that the main issue is that main opportunities and properties of Russian market should be identified and at the same time major distributors of the Russian market should get acquainted with Iranian traders because in the past years, Iranian goods in Russia have been distributed by the third party countries.
He reiterated that Russia’s market is totally different from Iran’s traditional markets like Iraq and entering this market without enough studies will be repulsive and make Iranian traders disappoint.
Payman-Pak reiterated Iran has sent several trade delegations to different republics of Russia and it has not been limited to Moscow and so far the two countries have exchanged 24 trade delegations, and urged bodies like Iran Chamber of Commerce and Iran Chamber of Cooperatives to help to organize traders of the private sector.
He then said the second factor is the presence in the exhibitions in Russia, adding that Russia will host an exhibition on Iran’s capabilities in September and some specialized exhibitions like on auto parts are being planned. He then pointed to using platforms as the third important factor for boosting trade with Russia, adding that if Iran wants to broaden an Iranian platform in Russia it needs considerable investment.
Payman-Pak continued to say that the center for promoting trade with Russia has been activated and the license for the launch of the Iran Trade Center in Russia has been issued and Iran Chamber of Cooperatives is in charge of it, noting the center will help traders to ease their trades and it will act actually as Iran’s trade embassy in Russia.
He then pointed to some good actions taken by both countries in the field of logistics and banking and stated that Iran and Russia have reached some good agreements on using cryptocurrencies in their trade to circumvent the sanctions.
Payman-Pak went on to say that currently 700 items of goods are covered under preferential trade which has been extended for one more year and there is possibility that tariffs of some 80% of goods exchanged between the two countries are zeroed under the free trade.
