Valliolah Afkhamirad told the meeting in the ceremony to mark Iran’s National Day of Exports on Tuesday that a workgroup would address the issue. “In the post-JCPOA era, country’s diplomacy should seriously address Iran’s jointing to WTO (World Trade Organization), since concerns over the possibility of opposition by WTO members to Iran’s joining are unfounded, and the minister of Industries, Trade, and Mines has promised to take everything into account in the campaign,” he ensured. “WTO, with 161 member states, have full control of more than 98 per cent of the global trade with its rules governing the global exchange; as the greatest economy outside the WTO, if Iran fails to set in agenda joining the WTO within the next five years, big challenges will be ahead,” Afkhamirad emphasized.
He believed that now Iran’s exports had been limited to few countries and goods, with potential target markets lying outside its scope; Afkhamirad, who is also the Director-General of the Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, added that Iran had an observer status since a decade ago, albeit being stuck in the first step, with joining negotiations still undecided. “The good news is that we have received some green light from the TWO which ensures us our future application for joining would face few contentions; we would rely on good offices of the foreign ministry to embark a successful campaign,” he added.
Afkhamirad provided a statistics of total technology exports worldwide; “$2,400bn is the total exports in 2012; this necessitates Iran’s direction in moving toward production of value-added goods and technologies; despite this fact, current composition and diversity of Iran’s exports suffers poor conditions,” he lamented.
He admitted that extensive reform in rules and regulations in trade was crucial for facilitating trade and improving transparency. “A relative stability in legal structures to fight smuggling and supporting newly-founded industries is a necessity in all sectors; for example, China reformed and reviewed 2300 rules and Russian did so for its 1166 cases to adopt policies which supports and sustains production sectors,” said the deputy minister.
“In this campaign, supporting small and medium-sized firms, promotion of brands and helping establish large companies should be on the agenda; with JCPOA removing barriers in the way of economic development, this heavy responsibility lies still with foreign ministry and other involved government bodies to grasp the opportunity to bring the focus to exports,” he demanded.
“Despite the significant growth rate in exports in recent years, the composition still suffers poor quality, with intermediate goods exports reaching 70 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 21, 2015 and value-added industrial exports shrinking in size,” Afkhamirad asserted.
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