Mohsen Jalalpour, Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), noting the recent approval of America’s Congress on setting visa restrictions for applicants eager to travel to Iran, said “the act of the US Congress goes against the free and competitive trade in the world though it brings about no concerns for Iran.”
“Since the Lausanne agreement, Iran has taken all necessary measures in order to expand economic relations with the world during the post-sanction era,” he stressed.
Jalalpour pointed out the recent visit of an Iranian delegation to Algeria underlining “Iran will accomplish large volume of trade with the world only by expanding trade relations with African countries despite the fact that such a trade had remained limited due to sanctions imposed on banking relations and financial communications.”
“Iran is seeking two major goals in the realm of world trade,” said the official highlighting “first, no country should have the right to decide for other states since the world is moving in the direction of establishing free trade and competition and the grounds for Iran’s trade with the world have been defined; second, the issuance of an act by a country’s Congress would not enjoy a prominent position in the legal world whereas if the decision was issued by the United Nations, the whole world was bound and obliged to implement it.”
Jalalpour further stated that Iranian entrepreneurs have form a campaign to convey to the world their protest against the decision of the US congress and to announce that Iran is a totally independent country urging the world to engage with Iran on equal terms as other countries since the action of Congress is deemed as extremely inequitable.
Head of ICCIMA reiterated “in line with the campaign, some correspondence has been made with the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as the International Chamber of Commerce in order to protest the action; moreover, brief discussions have taken place with chambers of commerce in other countries.”
“Currently, Iran holds trade and economic relations with a great number of countries and ICCIMA has pursued negotiations at different levels with delegations from other countries exercising a fair, equal and positive attitude,” noted Jalalpour highlighting “however, 30 per cent of the delegations visiting Iran were not allowed to work with Iran even though they had nothing to do with the 5+1.”
The official went on to say that if necessary, Iran will launch business deals with world countries other than the 38 ones subject to the act of the US Congress and the 5+1.
“The visit to Algeria indicated that suitable grounds exist for boosting cooperation with Africa in various fields like oil and gas, export of technical and engineering services as well as mass house construction,” stressed Jalalpour maintaining “we can also increase economic relations with Asian, African, CIS and the East Block countries since the recent congressional act by the US is against fair and equitable rules for trade in the world.”
ICCIMA head further said “delegations and ministers from countries around the world will arrive in Iran to conduct economic talks while we are also planning to deploy trade delegations to world countries including Indonesia.”
Jalalpour said the Iranian President will travel to France and Italy in 2016 which precludes the possibility that Iran’s trade will be affected by the act of the US Congress; “we want to announce that one should not prevent free and fair trade in the world by injustice, inequity and selfish decisions,” he concluded.
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