Tehran, Iran, May 22
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
The head of Iran-Kazakhstan Joint Business Council said Iran plans to increase the volume of its trade with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) trade bloc to $8 billion.
It means a 300 percent increase given the volume of trade between Tehran and the EEU, which currently stands at $2 billion, Amir Abedi told the Trend news agency in an exclusive interview on May 22.
He added that the Islamic Republic is seeking to raise the current volume to $8 billion following a recent preferential trade agreement (PTA) between Tehran and the trade bloc.
“Currently, the major obstacle to trade between the two sides is the issue of money transfer and banking transactions,” Abedi said.
This will be also solved soon as Iran and the Eurasian states may use national currencies in their trade like Russia.
The economic block also signed an interim trade deal with Iran during talks on May 17 in the Kazakh capital of Astana, Kazakh sources said.
The PTA comes as the US is snapping economic sanctions on the country back into place following its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran is now engaged in extensive talks with the five remaining signatories to the JCPOA -Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain - to decide about the future of the nuclear deal.
The EEU is comprised of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an international organization created with the aim of encouraging regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services and people within the union.
The bloc was established in 2015, after it superseded the Eurasian Economic Community that functioned from 2000 to 2014. The union has an integrated single market of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over $4 trillion.
