IRICA: Iran's Five-Month Trade with ‏EAEU‎‏

The value of Iran’s trade with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) exceeded US$1.4 billion in five months ‎following the going into effect of a preferential trade agreement between the two sides, said the ‎spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA)‎. Rouhollah Latifi added the agreement went into force on October 27, 2019, IRNA reported. ‎Putting at US$1.48 billion the exact value of the trade transactions between the two sides during October 27, ‎‎2019-March 25, 2020, he noted that of this figure, 67% pertained to Iran’s imports from the EAEU‎ ‎members and 33% to the country’s exports. ‎

Latifi said the weight and value of Iran’s overseas sales to the EAEU countries stood ‎at 1.15 million tons and US$489 million. ‎He put Iran’s imports at 2.95 million tons in terms of weight and US$999.3 million value-wise. The IRICA spokesman said the value and weight of Iran’s preferential exports to ‎the EAEU ‎‎countries reached US$136.26 and 123,960 tons. ‏Latifi added the weight of Iran’s preferential imports from the EAEU states ‎amounted to 2.38 million tons valued at US$‎‏749.81 million. ‏He said Russia was Iran’s top export destination, importing over 481,000 tons of ‎products from the country worth US$248.55 million.

Latifi added Russia accounted for over 50% of Iran’s total overseas sales to the EAEU countries. ‎He noted that following Russia, Armenia (24.6%) and Kazakhstan (16%) were the second and ‎third top importers of Iranian products. ‎In addition, Latifi said Russia was top exporter of products to Iran, having sold over two ‎million tons of goods to the country worth US$713.7 million. ‎He noted that Russia accounted for close to 72% of Iran’s total imports from the EAEU ‎states. ‏‏"Kazakhstan (24.9%) and Belarus (2.3%) ranked second and third in this regard."‏

He listed Iran’s major exports to the EAEU countries as apple, pistachio, liquefied ‎natural gas, kiwifruit, cucumber and pickled cucumber, saying the country’s preferential exports included kiwifruit, pistachio, dried grape, lettuce, cabbage and broccoli. ‎Latifi added imported items were barely, cow corn, sunflower oil and meat products, ‎listing the country’s preferential imports as barely, cow corn, paper and meat products. ‎

He said pistachio, kiwifruit and dried grape were Iran’s major preferential export items accounting for, ‎respectively, 46%, 27% and 10% of the country’s total overseas sales to the EAEU ‎states, adding Iran’s top three preferential import products included barely (45%), cow ‎corn (26%) and sunflower oil (17%). ‎

Gilan’s trade

This comes as, the customs supervisor of the northern Iranian province of Gilan, Abolghassem Yousefinejad, ‎said in the same five-month period, more than 328,000 tons of goods worth about US$164 million were ‎exported to the member countries of the EAEU from his province, according to Mehr News Agency. ‎He said the figures show 86% and 69% increases in terms of weight and value respectively, ‎compared to those of the same period a year ago.

Yousefinejad listed exported products as minerals, vegetables, fruit, date, raisin, tea, glass, ‎foodstuffs, textile and plastic products. He added the province imported a total of 467,000 tons of goods valued at US$327 million from the EAEU ‎countries, indicating rises of 43% and 33% weight-wise and value-wise ‎year-on-year.‎ Seeking to substantially increase trade, Iran and the EAEU signed a three-year provisional ‎agreement in Astana, Kazakhstan, in May 2018.‎

Based on the preferential trade agreement the two sides have three years to upgrade the treaty into a full-‎fledged free trade deal that lowers or abolishes customs duties.

As part of the provisional preferential trade agreement, the average tariff set by the EAEU for imports of ‎Iranian goods stands at 3.1%, while Iran’s average tariff for imported commodities from the EAEU ‎amounts to 12.9%, according to the deputy head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines ‎and Agricultures for international affairs, Mohammadreza Karbasi.‎

Iran and EAEU have a total of 862 types of commodities listed in their preferential trade agreement. As per ‎the deal, Iran will enjoy much easier export terms and lower customs duties for overseas sales of 502 items ‎to EAEU states and the same things happen regarding the country’s import of 360 items from the EAEU ‎members.

The EAEU ‎is an economic union of states located in central and northern Asia and Eastern Europe. The ‎Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed in May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan ‎and Russia, and came into force in January 2015. ‎- Iran Daily