The head of the Iran-Turkey Chamber of Commerce says that despite the potential for extensive trade between Iran and Turkey, this space has not been used in practice, which has reduced Iran’s exports to Turkey.

In an interview with ISNA, Jalal Ebrahimi said, “The latest statistics about last year released by the Customs and Trade Development Organization show that Iran’s exports have declined due to the Civid 19 outbreak, but there are still a number of major trading partners in Iran. However, Turkey’s position has declined compared to before, and Iran’s exports to this country have decreased.”Stating that Iran’s exports are very low in relation to Turkey’s capacity and population, he said, “Turkey imported goods from Iran only a quarter of China, and its imports were even much lower than the imports of Iraq, which has a lower population. This shows that we have not been able to use the existing capacities properly and paved the way for the exports of our goods to Turkey.”The head of the Iran-Turkey Chamber of Commerce continued, “A part of this non-use of capacities goes back to sanctions. Due to financial constraints, we had restrictions on the development of border infrastructure, transportation, and refrigerated containers, which made it difficult for goods to move between the two countries.”According to Ebrahimi, with the increase of sanctions, the export of petroleum and its products to Turkey has also decreased sharply; nevertheless, there is a trade capacity of 30 billion dollars between the two countries, which, if properly activated, can remove a significant part of the restrictions. In fact, the decrease in Turkish imports from Iran is due to the lack of necessary infrastructure and the restrictions we have faced.The way out of the current situation Stating that the way out of the current situation is to use economic consultations, the head of the Iran-Turkey Chamber of Commerce said, “At present we have the Iran-Turkey Chamber of Commerce. In the other hand, a large number of Iranian businessmen travel to Turkey during the year for various reasons, and these people are the best consultants to increase economic cooperation.   If these consultations are implemented simultaneously with the improvement of the transport infrastructure and facilities for exports, the goal of increasing trade between the two countries will easily be achieved.”According to ISNA, according to the 11-month statistics of Iran’s trade in 2020, China, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey were the main importers of goods from Iran.Turkey has sharply reduced its imports from Iran in recent months.