LAHORE: Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost on Wednesday said acurrency swap agreement and creation of banking channels with Pakistan wasunder process.
While speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) onWednesday, Mr Honardoost stated bilateral trade would be promoted andIran’s central bank would open branches in the country once the currencyswap agreement is reached, reported an English daily.
Participants from the business community lamented they were unaware of thetariff and duty structure of Iran due to which the bilateral trade figurebetween the two countries was so low.
But Iran’s situation hasn’t been helped by the punitive US sanctions on itsnuclear programme and some of those restrictions were removed in early-2016after it reached an agreement with the US and 5 other global powers.
During the financial year 2016-17, Pakistan’s exports to Iran were recordedat $22.084 million against imports of $39.87 million.
And from July-March of the current financial year 2017-18, trade figuresregistered a fall as imports were recorded at $5 million compared toexports of $17.155 million, as per Ministry of Finance figures.