TEHRAN – Iran and Iraq signed three memorandums of understanding to boost and facilitate their bilateral trade.

Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ali Tayyebnia and Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari signed the MOUs at the end of a meeting in Tehran on Sunday.

Double taxation avoidance, customs cooperation, and joint investment were the topics of cooperation documents signed by the two ministers.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Tayyebnia said that the annual trade between Iran and Iraq, taking transit and tourism revenues into account, could rise to $20 billion from currently $12 billion.

Zebari, for his part, said boosting bilateral trade will meet interests of both countries.

Iraq was the 2nd leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.      

Iran exported $6.182 billion of non-oil goods to Iraq and imported $60.369 million of non-oil goods from the country.  
   
In the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year, Iran exported $2.463 billion of non-oil goods to Iraq and imported $25.884 million of non-oil goods from the country.  

In February, Tayyebnia said Iran has fertile grounds for trade cooperation with Iraq, particularly in the field of exporting technical and engineering services. 

MA/