President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafei said that with the formation of a joint trade council between Iran and Pakistan, a $5 billion target for bilateral trade between the two neighboring countries could be easily achieved.
An agreement for the formation of a joint trade council was signed by the private sectors of Iran and Pakistan as an Iranian private sector delegation visited the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore over the past few days.
Speaking to Iran’s state TV upon arrival from Pakistan, Shafei said that he also believed that the joint trade council will help boost barter trade between Tehran and Islamabad.
In a meeting between a visiting Iranian private sector delegation to Pakistan and Pakistani central bank officials on Wednesday, the two sides reviewed the implementation of a barter trade mechanism between the two countries.
They also had discussions on resolving differences between Tehran and Islamabad on ways to implement barter trade.
Zahedan Chamber of Commerce is pursuing the case on behalf of Iran while Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry is also representing Pakistan in negotiations about barter trade with Iran.
As Iran is under US unilateral sanctions which has caused difficulty in the country’s financial and banking transactions with other nations, barter trade is considered as one of the best ways to continue with trade despite the existence of sanctions.
Iran reached a landmark nuclear deal with six world powers – namely the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China – in 2015 which led to the removal of all the sanctions on the country.
The US administration under President Donald Trump, however, unilaterally withdrew from the multinational accord in 2018. The country re-imposed sanctions on the Iranian economy and even threatened other countries that they would be punished by Washington if they refuse to follow these unilateral penalties.