RASHT (IRNA) – The supervisor of Gilan Customs Administration Abolghasem Yousefinejad declared that 24% by weight and 37% by value of the total exports to Eurasian countries are made through the customs of Gilan, a province of Iran situated on the southwest of the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Port of Anzali

Due of its location, Gilan has played the role of gateway to Europe since ancient times.

According to Yousefinejad the Port of Anzali receives the lion’s share of the traffic. Referring to the importance of Astara Customs, he noted that most customs procedures of the sea, rail, and land are carried out in this way and Astara Customs is a complete custom that requires more investment. He reiterated that the export trend in Gilan Customs has been increasing in 2019 and the largest volume of exports has been done from Astara.

In 2016, Iran proposed to the Eurasian Economic Commission the creation of a free trade zone between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). After two years of numerous negotiations and quantitative and qualitative evaluation of items and amount of preferential tariffs, an agreement was finally signed on May 17, 2018, in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Tehran believes joining the union has many economic advantages, including tariff discounts for Iranian exporters to the EAEU. In addition, as the Eurasian Union has increased its share of trade payments in national currency to 70% by reducing the use of the American dollar, there is reason for optimism that the reduction in the use of the dollar in trade would help Iranian businessmen in the current situation of sanctions against Iran.

Iran has set itself a target of $600 mln of trade in the framework of its Eurasian Customs Economic Agreement and claims to be able to meet it by the end of the year.