In an interview with IRNA on the sidelines of the 4th Seminar on Trading Patterns in ECO region in Islamabad, Ali Alimdadi said that future of ECO region is very bright.
He said the agenda of the conference is to ensure the accession of the ECO member-states to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“Among ECO countries Afghanistan has recently acceded to the WTO, but Iran is not the full member of the WTO despite being the biggest economy outside WTO in ECO region,” he added.
He went on to say that there should be unanimous voting for the accession of the WTO and the US is opposing our membership to the organization.
Ali Alimdadi added that more important thing is that the internal relations between the ECO member-states should be enhanced.
“We have very good relations with three of our neighbors namely Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey and with two of these we have Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and we are ready to expand it,” said the member of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization.
Giving details of the conference he said: 'We are going to pave the way for more bilateral trade agreements with the ECO members.'
'We are getting ready for the ministerial level meeting of the ECO to be held in Islamabad on 23rd and 24th of January 2018,' Alimdadi added.
“We are going to exchange data on expert level so that when our ministers come here they can do something regarding trade agreements inside ECO,” he noted.
Alimdadi said that the ECO is a trade gathering in a volatile region which unfortunately faced much of violence and bloodshed.
“But we are going to use trade to bolster our friendship to have amicable ties,” Alimdadi noted.
Alimdadi said that 'we are optimistic about the future of Iran-Pakistan trade ties which will be enhanced in the future.'
He was of the view that traders of both Iran and Pakistan know very well about their customs procedures, tax related issues so there is much room for the enhancement of Iran-Pakistan trade ties.
“We have a PTA with Pakistan and we are going to expand that. PTA is a great help for those countries which don’t have the FTA,” Alimdadi said.