Nearly 88% of cross-border customs offices operating

Mojtaba Mousavian said on Monday that Iran has joint borders with 15 neighbors and it prefers to expand trade with these nations as the country is under illegal harsh sanctions, reported Fars News Agency.

Iraq and China are the two top destinations for the export of Iranian commodities, Mousavian noted, adding that nearly 23 percent of Iran’s exports are destined for Iraq and some 24 percent for China.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of Arvand Free Zone Organization Ali Mousavi said that Shalamcheh border crossing in the southwestern province of Khuzestan was reopened and trade exchanges with Iraq were resumed through the border after a short halt.

He said that the border crossing, which connects Iran’s Khuzestan Province to Basra in Iraq, resumed trade operation on Monday morning after a one-week halt.

Mousavi added that based on an agreement with the Iraqi side, traders are allowed to export non-oil goods, including foodstuffs, fruits, vegetables, and meat, as well as techno-engineering services to the neighboring country through Shalamcheh.

Iraq closed its international borders in March, except for the import of essential goods to curb the coronavirus spread.

Then it partially reopened its southeastern Shalamcheh border crossing with Iran on July 7 after over three months.

In early June, Iranian Parliament Research Center announced that China, Iraq and the UAE, accounted for more than half of share of Iran’s total value of non-oil goods exported during the last Iranian year (ended March 19, 2020).

“There is a relatively strong focus on Iran’s export target markets in such a way that the UAE, China and Iraq accounted for about 54 percent of country’s total exports share value of non-oil goods,” Head of Iranian Parliament Research Center Mohammad Qassemi said.

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