Iran’s Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf has said that trade exchanges between Iran and Tajikistan have more than doubled over the past three years.
Speaking at a press conference after returning from his two-day visit to Dushanbe, the Iranian speaker said that he had had cultural and social discussions with top-ranking Tajik officials.
He stressed that talks over economic and industrial cooperation had topped the agenda of his talks in Dushanbe, adding that in a meeting with the Tajik president, he had discussed reducing tariffs on inbound goods from each other’s countries.
Qalibaf said that the issue of reduced tariffs is to be pursued in a joint commission of the two countries.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf (Left) and Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon are seen shaking hands before a meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, October 10, 2024.
Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Tehran Nizomiddin Zohidi said in mid-September that the volume of exchanges between his country and Iran had reached as much as $270 million.
The figure, he said, shows a significant rise in comparison to $57 million in bilateral exchanges five years ago.
Back in February, the Tajik ambassador had a meeting in Tehran with Samad Hassanzadeh, the president of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA), where he referred to “over 250 cooperation documents” between the two countries in 30 years, noting that if half of these documents had become operational, bilateral exchanges would have now reached as much as $1 billion.
The Iran Chamber of Commerce president has also said that more enhanced trade between Iran and Tajikistan rests upon establishment of a preferential trade regime between the two countries.
Hassanzadeh said that sudden increase of customs tariffs on certain Iranian export items to Tajikistan is an obstacle to bilateral trade, urging the country to reconsider its decision.