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Iran, Syria ink free trade agreement to confront Western pressures

19 December 2011 19:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iran and Syria have signed a free trade agreement in a bid to boost bilateral trade especially in industry, mining and agriculture to confront Western pressures on Syria, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The contract was signed after the Iranian parliament passed a bill last week on this regard and would provide for the free trade between Iran and Syria within the next five years, said the report without specifying the date and locus of signing the agreement.

Senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that the free trade pact was "a firm response" to the United States and its allies, which were "investing billions of dollars to change the political structure of the Syrian government," according to Tehran Times.

Iran’s deputy industry, mine and trade minister, Hamid Safdel, said Sunday that the deal would pave the way for the two sides to increase their annual trade volume to 5 billion U.S. dollars.

Currently, engineering services is Iran’s main exports to Syria, which amounted to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in the last Iranian calendar year that ended on March 20, 2011, Safdel was quoted as saying.

The two countries’ trade value excluding the exports of technical and engineering services stood at 336 million U.S. dollars in the last Iranian calendar year, according to the report.

Iranian firms are currently carrying out different projects in Syria, such as constructing cement factory, hydroelectric power plants, glass factory, and silos.

As long-time allies in the region, Iran has provided Syria with economic assistance in the past years to counter the international isolation and economic sanctions on the country. The two countries have recently signed a series of agreements on economic cooperation to help Syria withstand new pressures.

On Wednesday, Syria decided to reduce customs fees on Syrian goods to Iran by 60 percent, in an attempt to scale down the effect of economic sanctions by the United States, the European Union and some Arab countries.