Turkey Will Keep Trading With Iran

Turkey will continue its trade with Iran as much as possible and will not be answerable to anyone else, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump said the United States was withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“From now on, we will carry out our trade with Iran, within the possible framework, until the end, and we will not give account to anyone for this,” Zeybekci said in an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk, Reuters reported. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the United States will be the loser from US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear pact with Iran, state broadcaster TRT Haber on Wednesday reported him as telling CNN.

The TRT Haber report cited him as saying that the United States was not remaining faithful to the agreement it had reached. Iran’s non-oil commercial exchanges with Turkey totaled $7.18 billion in the last Iranian fiscal year (March 2017-18), growing by 20.01% compared to the year before, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration. Iran exported 14.36 million tons of commodities worth $3.99 billion to the neighboring country during the year to register a 31.41% and 22.88% growth in tonnage and value respectively year-on-year. The exported commodities mainly included natural liquefied gas, zinc and aluminum. Turkey exported 1.83 million tons of goods worth $3.19 billion to Iran during the same period, indicating a 13% rise in tonnage and a 16.61% increase in value YOY.Iran mainly imported auto parts, cooking banana, semi- and wholly-milled rice, and l wood pulp from Turkey.

source: Financial Tribune