Iran-US Trade Grows in April

Despite the decline in four-month trade, bilateral exchanges in April 2021 amounted to $2.7 million, up 58% compared with $1.7 million in April 2020. 

Latest data released by the US Census Bureau show Iran exported $0.1 million worth of goods to the US in the four months, indicating a 93.1% year-on-year fall.

Imports from the US stood at $12.2 million during the same period, down 15% from $17.2 million during the last fiscal year.

Iran exported $0.1 million to the US in April, while its imports totaled $2.6 million, indicating a 52% YOY increase.

The country’s commercial exchanges with the US amounted to $40.2 million in 2020, posting a 48.53% decline compared with 2019. It exported $3.9 million worth of goods to the US during the last year, indicating a 178.57% year-on-year rise.

Imports from the US stood at $36.3 million during the period, down 52.67% YOY.

Iran-US trade amounted to $74.5 million in 2019 to register a 84.97% decline compared to the year before. Iran exported only $1.4 million worth of goods to the US last year, down 98% YOY. Imports from the US totaled $73.1 million in 2019, down by 82.83% YOY.

In 2018, the value of trade between the two countries increased by 155% compared to 2017, after the reimposition of US sanctions on Iran. However, it has been falling drastically ever since.

Iran and the US are holding indirect talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The talks seek to revive a landmark pact under which Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions, which opened the way for a brief thaw in decades of US-Iranian confrontation, according to Reuters.

The twice-impeached US president, Donald Trump, abandoned the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. 

Trump's successor Joe Biden has said he wants to restore the deal's nuclear limits and, if possible, extend them to cover issues such as Iran's missile program. 

Iran wants all sanctions lifted without any expansion of the terms.

A senior Iranian official said on Wednesday the United States is ready to remove all sanctions on Iran’s oil, shipping and financial institutions.

The remarks by outgoing President Hassan Rouhani’s chief of staff echoed previous assertions by officials in Rouhani’s pragmatist camp that Washington is prepared to make major concessions at the talks underway since April in Vienna, Austria.

The talks adjourned on Sunday for a break, two days after Iran held a presidential election won by conservative Ebrahim Raeisi, the Iranian judiciary chief who is on a US blacklist. Raeisi is due to replace Rouhani in August.

“An agreement has been reached to remove all insurance, oil and shipping sanctions that were imposed by Trump,” Mahmoud Vaezi said, IRNA reported.

Like other western and Iranian negotiators who have said the talks remain a long way from conclusion, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday that Tehran and world powers still had to overcome significant hurdles, Reuters reported.

“We are making progress but there are still some nuts to crack,” Maas told a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Maas said a deal was possible even after the election of Raeisi, an implacable critic of the West.