TEHRAN – Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA), on Wednesday, hosted a seminar on Iran and Armenia’s trade opportunities and ways for boosting mutual economic relations.

As reported by the TCCIMA portal, the event was attended by government officials from the two sides including TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari and Head of Armenia’s state revenue committee Edvard Hovhannisyan, Armenian Ambassador to Tehran Artashes Toumanian as well as the representatives of the two countries private sectors.

The attendees of the seminar explored ways of increasing the level of trade between the two countries and stressed the need for taking necessary measures for the facilitation of economic interactions between the two countries’ private sectors.

They also addressed some of the barriers and issues on the trade of Iranian commercial and manufacturing companies with their Armenian counterparts.

Speaking in the meeting, which was organized by the Iran-Armenia Joint Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with TCCIMA, Hovhannisyan announced his country’s readiness for facilitation of cooperation between the two sides to improve the trade relations between Iranian and Armenian companies.

He also announced his country's decision to reduce customs duties on Iranian trucks entering Armenian territory, noting that Iranian trucks will have no problem crossing Armenia and entering Georgia and then Russia.

Before the seminar, the Armenian officials had also held a meeting with the TCCIMA head to discuss ways of expanding trade and economic relations between the two neighbors.

In that meeting, Khansari mentioned the free trade agreement signed between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and noted that Armenia is the only member of the union that shares a land border with Iran.

He called the development of economic relations between the two countries a big step for Iran and Armenia’s presence in third markets.

Khansari further expressed dissatisfaction with the current level of trade between the two countries and noted that Iran and Armenia have great potentials for boosting their economic transactions.

Referring to the establishment of specialized desks for promoting trade with some of the neighboring countries in TCCIMA, the official announced the establishment of an Armenian desk in this chamber with the cooperation of the two countries’ Joint Chamber of Commerce in the near future.

Hovhannisyan for his part described the seminar on Iran and Armenia trade opportunities as the first serious step in the development of economic relations between the two countries and said that the Armenian state-run and private sectors welcome any measure to improve mutual trade relations.

EF/MA