Afghanistan to move up in Iran’s trading partners: Official
The economic advisor to the Iranian president’s special envoy on Afghanistan affairs said that Afghanistan is set to return to the top of Iran’s list of trading partners.
Mohammad-Mehdi Javanmard Ghassab also announced the upcoming visit of an Afghan political-economic delegation to Iran.
Looking at the statistics released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), it can be observed that in recent years, China, Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Afghanistan have consistently been the largest customers of Iran’s non-oil products.
However, since the Iranian year 1401 (started March 21, 2022) and the establishment of the Taliban interim government, Afghanistan was removed from Iran’s list of the top five export destinations.
IRICA statistics indicate that in the Iranian year 1397 (started March 21, 2018), Afghanistan accounted for 6.6% of Iran’s non-oil exports with total imports of $6.6 billion.
The trend continued in the following years with some notable changes, except in 1398, and Afghanistan remained one of the top five destinations for Iranian goods.
In the year 1401, after the Taliban came to power, this figure almost halved, as the country’s imports from Iran reached the lowest level in recent years at $1.634 billion. As a result, in the list of non-oil product importers from Iran, other countries including India replaced Afghanistan.
The trend changed in 1402 when the Taliban interim government, after overcoming post-establishment crises in Kabul, showed a commitment to strengthen its ties with traditional trading partners, especially its neighbors like Iran.
This change in the economic relations between the two countries is the result of a special focus by Iran’s incumbent government on its neighbors, on one hand, and the attention given by the interim Taliban government to developing its relations with neighboring countries such as Iran, on the other hand.
These efforts have been strengthened by the exchange of economic delegations between Tehran and Kabul.
Exploring new opportunities for cooperation between Iran and Afghanistan and addressing some of the existing obstacles, alongside holding discussions on topics such as transit and mining cooperation, will be on the agenda of the economic delegations in the upcoming meetings.