Trade between Iran and Turkey might reach US$ 15 billion in 2011

Turkey’s bilateral trade with its eastern neighbor Iran will reach $15 billion this year, according to Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Bahman Hosseinpour, speaking to state-run Press TV news channel, according to a Bloomberg report yesterday.

The value of goods and services traded between the two countries totaled $10.6 billion during the first eight months of 2011, Hosseinpour said in the report.

Iran gains access to world markets via Turkish companies despite sanctions by the United States. The total number of the Iranian firms in Turkey reached 1,470 by the end the last year. This figure was 319 between 1954 and 2002. Bilateral trade between Turkey and Iran reached $10.55 billion by the end of September, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) data.

Turkey exported $8.22 billion to Iran in the first nine months of the year, meanwhile imports from Iran reached $2.33 billion.
Turkey plans to erect new border gates with its eastern neighbors Iran and Georgia due to the increase in trade with these countries.

October 23, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News