Farzad Piltan the Director-General of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO)'s Office for Arab and African Countries Affairs said in an interview with Mehr news agency (MNA) on Tuesday that Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was inked between Iran and Syria in 2010 but was halted due to some reasons.
He went on to say that FTA between the two countries will resume soon.
Under the FTA, the two countries were allowed to exchange goods by paying only four percent of the trade tariff (duties).
Despite signing and sealing this agreement, the possibility of traders to use this agreement was practically limited due to the policies of Iranian and Syrian governments in the field of export and import bans as well as restrictions imposed for the sake of economic issues, Piltan stated.
This agreement will become operational at the upcoming visit of Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade to Syria, he said, adding, “Conclusion of Free Trade Agreement between Iran and Syria means that the two countries' traders will be exempted from current export and import restrictions in their exchanges.”
He also pointed to the export of technical and engineering services to Syria and emphasized that if FTA is activated with Syria, suitable ways will be provided for taking advantages of facilities envisioned in the agreement, a part of which is related to the export of technical and engineering services to Syria.
He put the value of products exported to Syria last year in 2020 at $115 million.
According to statistics, Islamic Republic of Iran exported about $75 million worth of non-oil products to Syria in the first six months of the current year (from March 21 to Sep. 22), he added.
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