“Since Iran and Lebanon have already announced their readiness to reduce trade tariffs, negotiations on the signing a preferential trade agreement between the two countries have begun, the initial lists have been exchanged and primary consensus has been reached,” Farzad Piltan told ILNA on Tuesday.

Lebanon is an important country in West Asia and the Arab world, which has very good trade relations with the world; Beirut and Tripoli ports are very active ports in the region, the official said.

Mentioning the history of trade between the two countries, Piltan said: “Iran’s trade with Lebanon stood at about $100 million over the past few years, which, of course, has been declining due to the sanctions and the pandemic.”

In the Iranian calendar year 1396 (ended on March 20, 2018), the trade between Iran and Lebanon reached $124 million, of which $86 million was related to Iran’s exports to this country and $38 million was imports from the country, he explained.

“The trade fell to $78 million in the fiscal year 1397 (ended on March 20, 2019), which included $66 million of exports and $12 million of imports. The two countries’ trade volume was $33.8 million in the previous year (ended on March 20), of which $21 million were exports and $12.8 million were imports,” Piltan added.

He further referred to the amount of trade between the two countries in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22), saying: “In the first five months of the current year, we had about $20 million of trade with Lebanon, of which about $12.7 million were Iranian exports and $7.5 million were imports.”

According to the official, the trade between the two countries in the mentioned five months increased by 226 percent in terms of value and 677 percent in terms of weight compared to the previous year’s same period.

Iran’s main exports to the Arab country included iron or steel rods, floor coverings, glass, pistachios, textiles, tomato paste, active yeasts, polystyrene, animals, and electronic equipment, Piltan stated.

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Mohammad Farazmand said the initial list of commodities under a preferential trade agreement between Iran and Turkey is not effective anymore, because it needs a revision, Tasnim reports.

He explained that Iran did not have any preference for a series of items in the initial PTA list, while a number of goods have also been removed from the list of Turkey’s preferential trade commodities in the wake of economic developments and the recent sanctions.

“The initial list is not implementable at present,” the envoy said, adding that the organizations in charge, namely the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran and Turkey’s Ministry of Customs and Trade, are compiling a new list of items with preferential trade tariffs.

Farazmand also unveiled plans for a new meeting of the Supreme Committee of Iran-Turkey Economic Ties in Tehran in the near future, saying the committee is going to make decisions to facilitate bilateral trade.

Should the conditions become normal, achieving a $30-billion annual trade target will be possible, since the value of trade exchanges between the two neighbors has hit even $20 billion in certain periods, the ambassador added.

Tehran and Ankara have ramped up efforts in recent years to boost bilateral trade, setting a $30-billion annual trade target and signing several agreements to enhance cooperation in various areas.

Turkey is one of Iran’s major trading partners in the region which has come under pressure from Washington to stop working with Tehran under the US’ anti-Iran sanctions.

Turkey has emphasized that the US demands to stop purchasing oil and gas from Iran would go unheeded by Ankara.

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