Iran-Eurasia trade agreement to be signed: report

TEHRAN, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) are in talks to sign a preferential trade agreement by the end of January next year, Financial Tribune daily reported on Thursday.

"Between 200 and 250 categories of products are to be included in the agreement, which will be in effect for three years," Behrouz Hassan Olfat, the director general of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran's European and American Affairs Office, was quoted as saying.

Negotiations on the agreement started two years ago and consensus on trade of mineral and industrial goods as well as agricultural products were reached this autumn, Olfat said.

"Iran exported close to 500 million U.S. dollars worth of goods to the EEU member states during the seven months by Oct. 22 and imported nearly 800 million dollars in return," he said.

"The main exported products were agricultural products like fruit and vegetable, nuts like pistachio and raisins, pharmaceutical products and medical equipment, petrochemicals and oil," he said, adding that feed and steel artifacts as well as petrochemical products were the main items imported over the seven-month period.

Deputy minister of industries, mining and trade, Mojtaba Khosrotaj, said in July that exports to the EUU member states will either be fully exempt from customs duty or enjoy a duty cut of up to 80 percent. Enditem