The Research Center of Iran’s Majlis (Parliament) has released a report which shows that Iran’s share of the global trade has fallen from 0.3% in the fiscal year ending in March 2017 to 0.2% last year (ending in March 2020).
The report noted that the fall in Iran’s share of global trade took place while the volume of global trade transactions rose from $32 trillion to $35 trillion in the period under review.
It added that Iran’s last year foreign trade declined to $73.8 billion from $85 billion a year earlier.
While referring to the beginning of US unilateral sanctions against Iran as of 2018, the report attributed the fall in Iran’s share of global trade mostly to poor commercial infrastructure, lack of trade development strategy, poor economic and trade diplomacy, as well as insufficient attention to the importance of foreign trade in the Iranian economy.
Referring to the poor performance of Iranian free trade zones, the report said that the free trade zones of Iran have registered an average annual growth of -8%.
It said that the statistics suggest that the Iranian free trade zones have failed to play a significant role in attracting foreign investment as one of the main goals of establishing these zones in the Iranian economy.