President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafei and President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mian Nauman Kabir, in a meeting in Tehran on Monday, stressed the need for introducing a barter trade mechanism between Iran and Pakistan.
Speaking during the meeting, the Lahore Chamber president said that even if barter trade cannot be widely implemented in trade between Tehran and Islamabad, the Pakistani private sector is determined to make use of other alternate methods for boosting bilateral trade.
He also called for efforts to propose a package of commodities which can be bartered between the two neighboring countries.
President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, for his part, said that Lahore is one of the biggest industrial cities of Pakistan.
Shafei regretted that despite the neighborhood and high economic capacities, the volume of trade between the two countries is not satisfactory.
The map shows border crossings on the joint border between Iran and Pakistan
Noting that promotion of ties with neighbors is of prime importance to Iran’s international trade relations, he said that Iran attaches special significance to relations with neighboring Pakistan.
There is no exact tariff mechanism for trade between Iran and Pakistan, Shafei said, urging the need for the private sectors of both countries to press for finalizing and implementing a free trade mechanism.
Underlining that agricultural products provide a good ground for establishment of a barter trade mechanism between Iran and Pakistan, he said that bartering Pakistani mandarin for Iranian apple and kiwi fruit can be used as a role model for bartering other products.