The head of the Iran-South Korea Joint Chamber of Commerce announced a 35 percent increase in exports to South Korea in 11 months (March 21, 2021-February 19, 2022) compared to the corresponding figure of the preceding year.
Talking to Iran Daily, Pouya Firouzi said, “Clearly, trade between the two countries has improved compared to last [Iranian] year, but it is still a long way from its peak.”
Referring to South Korea's oil debts to Iran, he noted: "Until the issue of monetary and banking transfers between the two countries as well as the fate of Iranian money in Korean banks is not resolved, establishing regular and sustainable trade between Tehran and Seoul won’t be achievable.”
It is estimated that South Korea's debt to Iran amount to between $7 billion and $9 billion.
Firouzi added: "In the eleven months, Iran exported $62.6 million worth of commodities to South Korea.
Iran also imported about $462 million worth of goods from South Korea during the said period, which is 21 percent less than the figure for corresponding period of last year.
"Despite the rise in trade between the two countries during the current Iranian year, there is still a significant gap with its peak period which was scored four years ago ($7.7 billion),” the chamber president criticized.
“The current bilateral trade is even far from the figure for the first year of the US unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA (2019), which was more than $1 billion,” Firouzi added.
In the year to March 2018, the volume of trade (excluding oil exports) was close to $7.7 billion.
"South Korea was Iran's fifth-largest trade partner before the imposition of US unilateral sanctions against Iran," he said.
But under the influence of sanctions in recent years, South Korea has stood 18th to 20th, the chamber head added.