After two years of negotiations, a preferential trade agreement was signed between Iran and Eurasian Economic Union. Based on this agreement, Iranian customs tariffs which were previously set at 19% will be reduced to 7.7%. Currently, trade between Iran and the countries in this union is valued at 2. Billion dollars. Iran quotes Timur Suleymanov, Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan, as saying: “The Iranian market has an 8 billion dollar capacity for products exported by Kazakhstan”. The Eurasian Economic Union has listed products receiving preferential tariffs as meat, fat products, certain types of sweets and pastry, cosmetics, electronic and mechanical equipment. Iran will receive preferential tariffs for a variety of goods including, fruits, vegetables, dried fruits and construction material. Mojtaba Khosrotaj, Head of the Iran Trade Development Organization has said: “After numerous meetings with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Armenia we were able to reduce the import tariff of Iranian cookies and candies to zero. The export of these goods has been valued at 500 to 600 million dollars and with this preferential trade agreement the value can reach our goal of 1 billion dollars annually.”
