EU support for Iran accession bid to WTO an outcome of JCPOA: official

EghtesadOnline: The European Union support for Iran's accession bid to World Trade Organization is an outcome of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a senior economic official said on Tuesday.

News ID: ۷۶۸۶۹۷

03 August 2016

According to IRNA, Mohammad-Reza Ansari, the deputy head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, said that although the Western sanctions on Iran failed to cut Iran's economic relations with the world, they created restrictions for the Iranian economy.

Iranian economy can become global once Iran gets membership to WTO, Ansari said, adding that Iran would produce goods with the comparative advantages for export to the competative global markets.

Most of the world countries are WTO members and have different transactions with each other, he said in reference to the privilages they enjoy as per the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff.

'Staying out of WHO, would bring deprivation for Iran of the global trade and economic ties.'

Iran applied for WTO membership in 1996, but, the United States have blocked the process due to illogical animosity with 80 million population.

Iran accession bid was reviewed for a 22nd time in 2005 and despite the previous times, it was not the subject for the US objection. Therefore, Iran was admitted an observer member of WTO and its full membership was put on the agenda.

Following the return of an EU delegation from their Iran visit last month, EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini issued a statement supporting Iranian bid to join WTO.