Iran and Uzbekistan have reached initial agreements to engage in preferential trade to increase their bilateral exchanges by 10 times.
A senior official at Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) said on Tuesday that the agreements had been reached during a visit by Uzbekistan’s minister of trade Laziz Kudratov to Tehran last week.
Akbar Godari, who leads TPO’s office for Central Asia trade, said that the signing of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) would allow Iran and Uzbekistan to increase their trade to $5 billion per year from a current value of just $0.5 billion.
He said that the two countries have agreed on reducing trade tariffs on certain goods and products exported from Iran, including on train wagons, electricity generation turbines, steel and petrochemical products.
Building on these discussions, a high-level Iranian private sector delegation, led by the President of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA), Samad Hassanzadeh, visited Uzbekistan in late September 2024. Speaking at an Iran-Uzbekistan joint business forum in Khiva, Hassanzadeh emphasized the potential for cooperation in infrastructure, energy, transportation, agriculture, and tourism projects between the two nations.
At another forum held in Tashkent, Hassanzadeh reiterated the goal to increase the current $500 million trade volume to $1 billion by the end of the year, citing Iran’s strategic geographical position as a key advantage for regional trade through transit routes like the North-South Corridor. He encouraged Uzbek business leaders to explore investment opportunities in the Makran coast in southern Iran, which could serve as a pivotal hub for trade.
Iran has been working to increase the volume of its trade with regional and allied countries amid sanctions that restrict its access to Western markets.
The country has already signed PTA deals with a Russia-led bloc of Eurasian economies, known as the EAEU, and countries like Pakistan and Indonesia.
Uzbekistan is the most populous country in Central Asia. The country enjoys close cultural and historical affinities with Iran, making it easier for Iranian businesses to engage in trade with partners in the country.