President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafei said that one of the main obstacles on bilateral trade between Iran and Brazil is the imposition of high tariffs on Iranian goods by the Latin American country.
Shafei made the remarks during a meeting in Tehran with Brazilian Ambassador to Iran Laudemar Goncalves de Aguiar Neto.
Referring to high political relations between Iran and Brazil, Shafei said that trade relations between the two countries are not satisfactory.
He called on both countries to make use of the existing potentials to multiply the volume of economic relations.
Shafei noted that trade is a two-way road and durable trade will rely on balancing the level of trade between both sides.
The Iran Chamber of Commerce president said that two problems are impeding trade between Iran and Brazil: The first problem is related to transportation which requires finding proper solutions and the second one is that tariffs imposed on Iranian export items to Brazil are much high and in some cases reach 100 percent.
He said that Iran and Brazil have similar geopolitical positions, noting that Brazil can serve as a gateway for Iranian products to Latin American markets and Iran also has a 400-million-people market in its surrounding countries.
The Brazilian ambassador, for his part, admitted that the trade balance between Iran and his country does not benefit Iran and is 95 to 5 to the benefit of Brazil.
He said that Brazil will not be able to increase its exports to Iran if it fails to boost imports from the country.
The ambassador however noted that it is not possible to create balance between all trading items.
He said that Brazil has increased trade with Iran even amid the tough sanctions imposed by former US president Donald Trump. The ambassador cited official reports which say Iran’s trade with Brazil over the first nine months of 2022 has been unprecedented in the history of trade between the two countries.
He said that Brazil’s exports to Iran is expected to reach $3.6 billion by the end of 2022 while it stood at $1.9 billion in 2021.
The ambassador added that although Iran’s exports to Brazil is not much high, it has doubled compared to figures from past year.
Referring to high tariffs on Iranian exports to Brazil, he said that there is no difference in this regard between Iranian and non-Iranian products.