President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Hossein Selahvarzi has stressed the need for signing a preferential trade agreement between Iran and India at the earliest.
Selahvarzi made the remarks in meeting in Tehran with India’s Ambassador to Iran Rudra Gaurav Shresth.
In order to give a boost to economic and trade relations between Iran and India, the two countries need to ease high tariffs and resolve problems on the way of trade exchanges, Selahvarzi said.
He noted that India has tariff-free trade with many countries which has caused Iranian goods to be bought by third countries and be re-exported to India.
The economies of Iran and India are complementary and the two countries have many potentials for cooperation in the areas of medicine and pharmaceuticals, knowledge-based and agricultural products, Selahvarzi said.
The Indian ambassador, for his part, said that although the sanctions on Tehran have caused limitations, they have provided a chance for diversifying trade between the two countries.
Ambassador Shresth said that his country is also eager to make use of Iran’s transit potentials.
He stressed that India is making efforts to expedite the signing of a preferential trade agreement with Iran, adding that the problem on financial exchanges can also be resolved by reactivating payments in national currencies which was used before the imposition of sanctions on Tehran.
He also urged the need for more efforts to expand trade in areas like agriculture, pharmaceuticals and food which are not subject to sanctions.
The ambassador also called on Iran Chamber of Commerce to help Indian companies for matchmaking in Iran.
He said he believed that the low level of trade between Iran and India is much more a result of lack of knowledge about the potentials of each other than the effects of sanctions.