Private sectors of Iran and Pakistan have stressed the need for finalizing a free trade agreement between the two neighboring countries.
Iran and Pakistan have decided to boost the level of their annual bilateral commercial exchange to as much as $10 billion after the two countries experienced a 38 percent growth in trade that reached more than $2 billion last year.
Iran and neighboring Pakistan have exchanged some 4,933 million metric tons of goods valued at $2.75 billion over the past Iranian calendar year to late March, according to an official familiar with the matter.
Statistics by Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce indicated that Iran exported an almost $1 billion worth of non-oil products to the South Asian country in 2023, registering a 13-percent growth compared to a year earlier.
Iran is scheduled to open trade centers in Pakistan within the next few months, according to an official with Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO).
Iran’s non-oil exports to Pakistan increased by 62 percent year-on-year during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21-October 22), according to an official with the knowledge of the matter.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian explained the outcome of his visit to Pakistan, and said that the two countries are determined to increase the value of their trade exchanges to over five billion euros.
Iran and Pakistan will start direct talks for a free trade deal in September, according to a senior Iranian trade official who says an agreement may be possible until the end of the Iranian calendar year in March 2024.
Niloofar Assadi, the caretaker of international affairs of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) says that Iran and Pakistan have to devise new mechanisms to give a boost to their bilateral relations.
The volume of electricity exchange between Iran and Pakistan has reached 200 megawatts with the launch of a new transmission line, Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian made the statement at a meeting with Pakistan’s Power Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan on Sunday.