Iran’s 7-Month Exports to Syria

Iran exported commodities worth US$73 million to Syria during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21), according to an official with Iran's Trade Promotion Organization (TPO). Farzad Piltan, the director-general of TPO’s Office of Arabian and African Countries, put the value of Iran’s imports from Syria at US$10 million in the seven-month period. The official said that Iran-Syria trade stood at US$170 million in the past Iranian calendar year, of which the share of Iran’s export was US$160 million, while that of Syria was US$10 million.
He named auto parts, medicine, steel ingots, pipes and profiles, gas turbine parts, babay formula, pistachios, sanitary valves, and yeasts as the major products Iran exports to Syria, and phosphate, olive oil, vegetable, nuts, and fabrics as the main imported items.

In mid-October, the Chairman of Iran-Syria Joint Chamber of Commerce Keyvan Kashefi announced the official inauguration of the Iranian trade center in Damascus. “This trade center has been opened with the aim of realizing the goal for US$1 billion of annual exports to Syria,” Kashefi said at the time. The two countries have been exchanging numerous trade delegations in the past few months and Iranian private companies are investing in different areas like providing construction materials especially cement and working on several reconstruction projects in Syria.

In a meeting with the head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam-Hossein Shafei, in mid-October, Syrian Ambassador to Tehran Adnan Hassan Mahmoud pointed to the two countries’ strong will for strengthening economic and industrial relations, both in public and private sectors and said: "We make every effort to neutralize the impact of sanctions on the economies of the two countries and we will strengthen trade relations between the two sides.” Shafeie, for his part, stressed the significance of signing a free trade agreement between the two sides.

“With the signing of a free trade agreement between Iran and Syria, there will be good days in trade between the two countries,” the ICCIMA head stated. Referring to the Iranian Trade Center in Damascus, he said: "This trade center is one of the largest centers of Iranian trade abroad, which can play an important role in the development of trade between the two countries." - Tehran Times