TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) said the country has put a 21-percent rise in foreign trade on the agenda for the current Iranian calendar year 1400 (started on March 21), IRNA reported.

Speaking in a press conference on Monday, Hamid Zadboum said two scenarios have been considered for the current calendar year with regard to the country’s foreign trade, one is the case in which Iran will reach an agreement with the world powers on the nuclear deal and the U.S. sanctions are lifted and the other one is the remaining of the U.S. sanctions.

“In the worst-case scenario we will continue the plans implemented in the previous year,” Zadboum said, adding: “Over the past year, the outbreak of the coronavirus and the escalation of sanctions affected our foreign trade but we managed to pull through.”

The official noted that a 21-percent growth for the country’s foreign trade is attainable if the conditions are right.

“Sanctions have been imposed to block Iran’s trade channels; the country’s production sectors need to import some raw materials in order for exports to flourish, this requires favorable trade conditions, and sanctions are the main obstacle in this regard,” he explained.

“If transportation and banking issues are to continue like before due to the sanctions, they will affect the Trade Development Organization plans for the current year,” Zadboum added.

However, if the barriers to the import of raw materials for factories and production sectors are removed, the country will be able to move in line with this year’s slogan set by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyed Ali Khamenei and export-oriented production will be boosted, according to the official.

The TPO head mentioned the decline in the country’s foreign trade during the previous year due to the pandemic and said: “Last year we saw a 15 percent decrease in the weight and value of exports, while that imports also decreased by 11.7 percent in terms of value and about 5.8 percent in terms of weight.”

Considering the special conditions of the previous year, TPO is going to set the trade levels for the Iranian calendar year 1398 (two years ago) as the criterion for the trade goals of the current year, he stated.

EF/MA