TEHRAN: Iran exported 2.417 billion dollars of non oil goods and imported 4.31 billion dollars of non oil goods from India. Iran government has planned to increases more exports of non oil goods to India.
The signing a preferential trade agreement with India could bolster Iran’s presence in the Indian market, the ISNA news agency reported.
Iran can export constructional services as well as cement and petrochemical products to India, he stated.
The official mentioned petrochemical products, chemical fertilizers and some raw materials as Iran’s major exported products to India and rice, food products and medicine as Iran’s main imported goods from the country.
Preferential trade agreement is a pact that reduces tariffs for certain products to the countries who sign it. While the tariffs are not necessarily eliminated, they are lower than countries not party to the agreement. It is a form of economic integration.
The Indian government has decided to get moving on the long-delayed construction of strategically critical Chabahar port in Iran that would give India easier access to Afghanistan and Central Asia through a shorter route that would also mean being able to avoid Karachi in neighboring Pakistan.
India and Iran had decided on the project in 2003, but the venture failed to make much headway because of U.S. sanctions on Iran, even though port construction was exempted from the sanctions.
India was the 4th biggest importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2014, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
