The official stated that the country’s total foodstuff turnover stands at about $100 billion of which the share of imports is only $10 billion.

In December 2018, the Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani had announced that in the last Iranian calendar year the government paid $14 billion of foreign currency at official exchange rate to import basic goods.

Elsewhere in his remarks Ghobadi noted that regarding the basic goods, the country is well supplied and even for some commodities like red meat the government no longer provides the importers with foreign currency at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials.

The government provides importers of basic goods with foreign currency at an official exchange rate of 42,000 rials to support foreign trade and to help supplying basic goods into the country.

Mentioning the unjust U.S. sanctions on the country, Ghobadi said the government is taking all necessary measures to mitigate the economic consequences of these sanctions for people.

Earlier in May, Deputy Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said following a directive by President Hassan Rouhani, IRICA is providing new facilities for importers of basic goods which makes them able to clear their commodities in less than an hour, IRNA reported.

“For basic goods such as meat, system formalities and clearance procedures will be carried out in less than an hour and importers can transport their goods soon after,” Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi said.

In the same month, the head of IRICA said his organization has selected 120 major manufacturing companies under the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) framework to provide them with especial facilities like non-stop and duty-free clearance.

“These 120 companies, some of which are knowledge-based, can clear their goods using a non-stop green customs path,” Mehdi Mir-Ashrafi said, Mehr news agency reported.

According to the official, one of the problems that most of the producers are facing is the lack of liquidity, in this regard IRICA has agreed to help the producers by letting them to clear their goods by paying the duties partially.

“This means an amount of the imported goods equal to the customs clearance duties are kept, and the rest will be cleared without any payment and further added value, which means they are cleared duty free,” he added.

The Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) plan provides selected Iranian companies with 18 different forms of facilities which cover a wide range of customs related procedures and processes.

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The Iranian minister underlined Iran’s commitment to the signed preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Turkey and called for expansion of the types of goods traded via PTA to reach the set 30-billion-dollar annual bilateral trade in future.

Rahmani also welcomed construction of industrial parks in Iran with cooperation of Turkish companies, naming it a good opportunity for attraction of investments and transferring knowledge into Iran on the way to boost Iran’s non-oil exports and job creation.

Referring to the high available capacity of free and special zones at Iran-Turkey border, the Iranian official recommended formation of a working group to facilitate mutual trade. Accordingly, the committee to ease Iran-Turkey trade would remove customs barriers and ease mutual commerce between the two sides.

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