Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO) Alireza Peimanpak said on Tuesday that Iran and Syria are scheduled to sign a free trade agreement next month.
Peimanpak said that Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Fatemi Amin is due to visit Syria on November 29 for signing a free trade agreement between the two countries.
Former TPO chief Hamid Zadboum had announced in March that Iran’s government was trying to reduce customs tariffs on trade between Iran and Syria from the current four percent to zero.
Speaking at the Conference on Trade Opportunities and Strategies with Syria, Zadboum said that Iran has signed free trade agreement only with the Syrian government, according to which customs tariffs are set at four percent. The Iranian government, he said, is trying to reduce the tariff to zero in the future negotiations with Damascus.
“88 items are excluded from the Iran-Syria free trade agreement, but we are trying to include these items in the agreement as well,” Zadboum said.
Iran has exported some $66 million worth of goods to Syria over the first four months of the fiscal year (March 21 – July 22) which shows a 36% growth compared to figures from last year’s corresponding period, Keyvan Kashefi, the head of Iran-Syria Joint Chamber of Commerce, said in August.