TEHRAN - Head of Iran-Armenia Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Iran’s preferential trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has had a significant impact on the country’s trade relations with Armenia.

Speaking to IRNA on Friday, Hervik Yarijanian said: “The two sides are applying tariff discounts offered based on the agreement and there has been no problem in this regard.”

According to the official, the volume of trade between the two countries has witnessed an outstanding rise since the agreement became effective in October.

“Turkey used to dominate the Armenian market, but now the Iranian products are much cheaper than the Turkish ones, which has given Iran a competitive advantage,” Yarijanian added.

Iran mainly imports red meat from Armenia, while Armenia imports polymer raw materials, machinery, industrial gases, manufactured artifacts, leather and leather goods from Iran, he said.

He further noted that Iran has a much greater export capability compared to Armenia, adding that traders have not yet gotten used to the idea of the preferential trade agreement and hopefully with the expansion of this deal, more Iranian traders will be attracted to the Armenian market.

Iran and Armenia have been emphasizing the need for preserving and expanding trade relations between the two countries since the preferential trade deal between Iran and EAEU was implemented.

While the U.S. renewed sanctions on Iran are aimed at isolating the Islamic Republic both politically and economically, Iran’s relations, especially in the economic sectors, with its neighbors are seemed not to be affected by the sanctions.

The northwestern neighbor Armenia is one of the countries preserving and expanding its economic relations with Iran regardless of the sanction condition.
As previously announced by Iran’s commercial attaché to Yerevan Mohsen Rahimi, the value of trade between Iran and Armenia has hit a record high of $364 million in 2018.

The official put the worth of Iran’s export to its neighbor at $269 million and said that natural gas, petrochemicals, iron and steel, tiles and ceramics, fruit and nuts have been the major Iranian products exported to Armenia in that year.

EF/MA