Senior officials from Iran and Uzbekistan have discussed the launch of a preferential trade regime between the two countries on Monday.
On the first day of a visit to Uzbekistan by Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO) Alireza Peimanpak, he had meetings with Uzbek officials where they discussed and paved the way for signing a preferential trade agreement by the presidents of the two countries in an SCO Summit meeting in Uzbekistan in September.
Boosting bilateral trade, finding solutions to problems on the way of the businesspersons from both countries, as well as transportation and banking issues and exploring ways for barter trade were other issues discussed between the Iranian and Uzbek officials on Tuesday.
Peimanpak and Uzbekistan’s Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Badriddin Abidov, in a meeting on Tuesday, discussed different mechanisms for barter trade.
The two officials agreed to hold expert meetings in this regard.
The two officials also agreed that an Iranian expert delegation will visit Uzbekistan next week to prepare a preferential trade agreement to be signed by the presidents of the two countries in September.
They also agreed that a major Iranian trade delegation accompany President Ebrahim Raeisi in his visit to Uzbekistan in September to have B2B meetings with their Uzbek counterparts.
Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov and Iranian Vice-President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaei in a meeting in Tehran in late February urged the need to speed up finalizing a preferential trade agreement between the two countries so as to raise bilateral trade to $1 billion per annum.