Iran, Turkey to Use National Currencies in Bilateral Trade
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran and Turkey are slated to implement a new agreement on Thursday, according to which, their national currencies will be used instead of US Dollar in the trade transactions between the two neighboring countries, the Turkish economy minister said.
“Finally after 11 years of negotiations, the preferential trade agreement between Iran and Turkey was approved and will be implemented from tomorrow, January 1, 2015,” Nihat Zeybekci said in a meeting with Iranian Minister of Industries, Mines and Commerce Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh in Tehran on Wednesday.
“With the implementation of the agreement, we plan to increase the value of our bilateral trade transactions from $16 billion to $30 billion,” the Turkish minister said.
Nematzadeh, for his part, said that after a recent meeting between the Iranian and Turkish presidents and after the establishment of a high council for strategic cooperation, it was agreed that the value of annual trade should reach $30 billion.
“Turkish economy minister and I have been assigned to pave the grounds for the promotion of economic cooperation between the two countries by implementing the preferential trade agreement,” he noted.
Iran, which owns the world’s largest natural gas reserves, is Turkey’s second biggest gas supplier after Russia. Turkey uses a significant portion of its imported Iranian natural gas to generate electricity.
Turkish exports to Iran are mainly machinery, motor vehicles, iron and steel products, boilers, electric devices, tobacco products. Crude oil and natural gas dominate Iranian exports to Turkey with 90%.