A reduction in Iran’s exports to Iraq and Afghanistan is not a source of concern and a roughly 80% of Iran’s trade is being made with its neighboring countries, said an Iranian trade official on Sunday.
Ahmadreza Alaei, deputy head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, said that the main cause of reduction in Iran’s exports to the two neighboring countries is political changes and lack of political stability in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The official added that another reason for the fall in Iran’s trade with Iraq and Afghanistan is a change in domestic policies of the two countries.
“Both countries are after supporting their national production and as a result of that, a number of commodities that we used to export to these countries have no more customer,” Alaei said.
He said for instance that Afghanistan has no plan to import plastic products anymore and Iraq is seeking to stop the imports of its agricultural needs.
A recent report by the Statistics and Economic Analysis Center of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture said that the fall in trade between Iran and Afghanistan is mainly caused by US sanctions against Afghanistan’s banking network.