Iran-Turkey Trade to Return to Normal after Borders Reopening: Joint Chamber Secretary

Iran-Turkey Trade, currently suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak in Iranian provinces, will soon return to normal following the reopening of the border gateways between the two countries.
Borders will reopen once a number of preventive and protective medical measures are taken, added Jalal Ebrahimi, the secretary of Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily. He said that the trade borders between Iran and Turkey are of great importance for goods transit between the East and West.

In the aftermath of the spread of the coronavirus epidemic in Iran over the past few weeks, Turkey closed its borders with the Islamic Republic in a move described by Turkish officials as a part of preventive measures to protect their people against the outbreak. Over the past few days, Ebrahimi added, a large number of trailers and transit vehicles have been stopped behind the two countries’ joint borders. Once health control and screening equipment are installed at the entry points between the two countries, trade transactions will be resumed in up to two days, he said.

Identified suspicious cases will be quarantined in nearby Iranian cities, such as Tabriz and Orumieh (both located in northwestern Iran), Ebrahimi added. Commenting on the large number of transit vehicles crossing Iran-Turkey joint borders under normal conditions, he said, the two countries are among the few neighbors in the world with three border points, which has always facilitated goods and passenger transit between them.

“Normally, an average of 500 trailers cross the joint borders between Iran and Turkey. In addition, other countries’ trailers also use these borders to carry goods to East Asia.” The trailers entering Iran through joint borders with Turkey are either destined for the Persian Gulf littoral states, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia or the central Iran and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
He estimated that the closure of the joint borders between the two countries has led to a failure in the delivery of 10,000 tons of goods, including foodstuffs, to the target markets.

He said gas and oil exports from Iran to Turkey constitute the major part of the trade transactions between the two countries, adding although Iran still exports gas to Turkey, its overseas sales of oil to its northwestern neighbor are currently faced with limitations as a consequence of Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Tehran. Ebrahimi also said that Turkey is among the biggest importers of oil and gas condensates from Iran. “The country also imports tar, oil byproducts and petrochemicals from Iran.”

Establishing depots and centers in Turkey for storing and selling, respectively, Iranian goods in the country is among the best solutions to raise exports of petrochemicals and other products from Iran to its neighbor. This way Turkey would be able to meet its needs with greater convenience and Iran can export its products to other countries through these centers and depots.

Russians have done the same thing, establishing some centers in Turkey for selling carbon black. “They store their products in these centers, from which Turkish and other customers can make their purchases.”

“The Turkish side is willing to see the same thing take place with regard to Iranian products, as if this happens, a large number of the problems currently besetting the two countries’ monetary transactions will be resolved and Turkish as well as other customers can make their cash purchases directly from the centers.”

He listed Iran’s non-oil exports to Turkey as dried fruit, fruit, warm-season crops and vegetables, saying previously, coal, iron pellet and iron ore constituted a part of Iran’s overseas sales of non-oil products to Turkey, which were ceased due to a sharp rise in demand by domestic steel makers for such raw materials.

Ebrahimi put at US$9.5 billion trade between Iran and Turkey in the previous Iranian calendar year (which ended on 20 March 2019), saying the figure has witnessed a decline in the current year.
He said Turkey’s major exports to Iran include industrial machinery and spare parts, chemicals, textile and clothes as well as industrial dyes. - Iran Daily