‘Ankara aims to bring Iran trade up to $35 billion by 2015’

Meeting with Iranian Minister of Agricultural Jihad Sadegh Khalilian in Ankara, Yılmaz underlined that there was no reason for Turkey to not be able to meet that target. “The common target for us all right now is $35 billion [in bilateral trade]. The figures for the first four months of this year give us hope to that end,” he said.

Being natural trade partners thanks to their long shared border, Turkey and Iran have substantially increased their trade with each other in the past few years. According to Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) data, the bilateral trade volume of just more than $4 billion in 2008 became $14.5 billion last year. The two neighbors’ trade is, however, heavily imbalanced to the benefit of Iran because of Turkey’s energy purchases, as high as $13 billion, from the Middle Eastern country.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that America would exempt Turkey as well as India, South Korea and four other countries from financial sanctions because they have significantly cut purchases of Iranian oil. Cutting back on its energy trade with Iran, Ankara has begun talks with Riyadh on long-term crude oil purchases, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız said on Tuesday. Turkey cut its imports from Iran to 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May from an average of 210,000 bpd in the first four months of this year, shipping data showed.

In his remarks on Wednesday, Yılmaz, however, emphasized that Turkey and Iran are the two largest economies in their region and that current talks on signing a Preferential Trade Agreement should be concluded as soon as possible. What should later follow, for Minister Yılmaz, are negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement. He also said that commercial ties should be strengthened with mutual investments in both countries. Also speaking on Wednesday, Khalilian said the trade between the two neighbors could become $21 billion by the end of this year and that the volume will further be boosted after the signing of the Preferential Trade Agreement.