Iran Eases Imports From Turkey

Last year, Iran decided to ask for approval from Iranian consulates for imports from Turkey. This decision led to waste of time due to the bureaucratic procedures in the consulate and complaints over document fees.

In response to Iran’s move, the Ministry of Economy started practicing a “consulate approval requirement” in September.

It was reported that the contact following the instructions given by Zeybekci to the bureaucrats yielded positive results and Iran lifted the consulate approval requirement last week. The requirement had been applied to Turkish exporters since last year and had negatively affected bilateral trade, according to Financial Tribune.

Iran informed Turkey about the removal of the consulate approval requirement through diplomatic channels.

Obstacles facing exports and exporters in this market have been removed, which resolve some of the most important problems in Turkey’s trade with Iran.

The Turkish Ministry of Economy, which closely followed Iran’s sanctions and practices, and put a similar implementation into effect in September, is expected to remove consulate approval after the decision.

The Turkey-Iran preferential trade agreement, signed on January 29, 2014, went into force on January 1, 2015. Under the agreement, Turkey provided customs tax discounts or exemptions on 140 Iranian agricultural products, while Iran applied customs tax reduction to 125 Turkish industrial products.

In terms of covered products, imports from Iran increased by 41.9% to $31.9 million last year, while exports to Iran rose by 39.1% to $1 billion when compared to the previous year.

In the first eight months of the year, Turkey’s imports of agreement-related products surged by 66% to reach $37.8 million, while exports rose by 2% to hit $625.5 million compared with the same period of the previous year.