Iran expands trade with UAE

Official Iranian circles are expanding the trade exchange with the UAE to a record level in the next phase in light of the rapprochement shown by Abu Dhabi towards Tehran.

Iranian officials predicted that the volume of trade with the UAE in the next phase will reach 20 to 25 billion dollars. The current trade exchange between them ranges between 10-15 billion dollars, while the figures pointed to 30 billion dollars even before the imposition of US sanctions on Iran.

The head of the Iran Economy Association, Masoud Daneshmand, said they expect to boost trade cooperation between Iran and the UAE in the coming period and resume the activity of Iranian traders “under better conditions than before” there.

“We will soon begin importing non-sanctioned goods from Dubai to Iranian ports, after opening L / C accounts and exporting our petrochemical products to the UAE,” Daneshmand said in televised remarks.

“We expect a close return of Iranian exchange companies to the UAE and activate financial exchanges between the two sides,” he said, noting that Iranian capital accounts for 10% of investments in the UAE.

Two days ago, the head of the Iranian Traders’ Association in the UAE, Abdul Qader Faqihi, announced that “we have seen an openness in the UAE to resume the trade environment with Iran,” noting that, as directed by Dubai officials, Iranian traders will be re-granted business visas.

Fakihi said that Iranian banking centers in the UAE will be reopened within days, at the behest of the UAE Central Bank, explaining that Dubai’s ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum promised to provide facilities to Iranian investors despite US sanctions, but stipulated approval of the trade of goods not covered by the sanctions. .

Airlines fly 200 flights a week from various Iranian cities to the UAE to transport 100,000 Iranian tourists, as well as another 600,000 Iranian nationals living in their southern neighbor.

For his part, Chairman of the Iranian-UAE Joint Chamber of Commerce, Farshid Farzankan, considered changing the behavior of the UAE side with Iranian businessmen, an indication of the beginning of the move towards reviving trade activity between Iran and the UAE.

He attributed the UAE’s promises to solve the problems of Iranian traders to the importance of the Iranian Republic to the UAE economy, pointing out that the UAE economy has entered a recession, which led its officials to make a decision to cooperate with Iran, which is a “right choice.”

According to Iranian statistics, Tehran imports 10% of all imports from the UAE, while exporting about 15% of all its exports through the UAE.

According to Iranian media, the UAE has exercised economic pressure on Iranian traders in Saudi Arabia in recent years, reversing its decision after refraining from Riyadh’s policies regarding the war on Yemen.

Iranian media reported that the number of Iranian tourists to Dubai had shrunk to a third over the past year, as did the number of Iranian traders there, which had a negative impact on Dubai’s economy.

According to the official Iran newspaper, 8,000 Iranian businessmen are active on the UAE scene through some 6,000 companies registered there.

Some 80% of Iranian traders are reported to have suspended their activities in the UAE and in recent years to other countries, including Oman, Qatar, Turkey and Georgia.

The UAE turned its link to Iran after a rupture that lasted for years, where the UAE Coast Guard Commander Brigadier General Mesbah Al-Ahbabi met with the Commander of the Iranian Border Guards Brigadier General Qasem Rezaei a few days ago. The UAE talked about the need for continuous coordination between Tehran and Abu Dhabi to ensure the safety of navigation in the region.

The regime in the UAE has been pursuing a policy of promoting “propaganda” tensions with Iran for years.

From oil to machinery, equipment and supplies to even the smallest spare parts and tools, a world of trade and non-tariff passage in a parallel market that does not record its data in official records or statistical information systems, but is present in the tens of billions between Iran, which has been besieged by the United States for decades, and its neighbors, the UAE in particular.

These distinguished relations have been going on for many decades, with their geographical reasons, economic necessities, factors of mingling peoples, exchanging interests and fictional profits away from taxes and fees and wasting time on administrative routine transactions and inspection bodies.

The two countries talk about border coordination and their intelligence agencies involved in facilitating exchanges and learning “stray and incoming”. It is not possible for a sane or naive to accept the idea of ​​transporting goods in these quantities and the movement of people between the two banks day and night without the knowledge of the authorities of two regimes. The intensity of public dispute over the three islands and the region’s security have limited the detonation of tankers and the use of East and West armies to ward off the threat and counter-threat.

According to 2017 figures, the UAE topped the Arab countries in trade with Iran, with a figure of about $ 13 billion, and the UAE is the world’s largest exporter of Iran, and Dubai accounts for 90% of the total exchange.

Iranian exports amounted to $ 5 billion, compared to UAE exports to Iran exceeded $ 7 billion, accounting for 30% of Iran’s imports, while the value of the exchange was expected to reach $ 30 billion after the signing of the nuclear agreement.