MNA� Chairman of Iran and Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce Reza Kami revealed the considerable reduction of trade volume exchanged between Iran and Turkey from $22 billion to $11 billion following Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).

He pointed to trade volume between Iran and turkey at $30 billion and said, �various obstacles in the fields of banking, monetary, insurance and also border and transit problems have thus far created serious barriers ahead of trade growth between Iran and Turkey.�

To put Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) into effect, the aforementioned problems should first be settled, he reiterated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to the lack of operation of 15 agreements between Iran and Turkey and said, �trade volume exchanged between Iran and Turkey has been constant as much as about $10 billion in the past few years, a major part of which is related to the Turkish export of products to Iran and vice versa.�

He termed the determination of PTA in changing trade volume between Iran and Turkey as �ineffective� and said, �Iran�s export products to neighboring Turkey include oil, gas, base oil, petrochemical, copper, zinc, lead, bitumen, date while Turkish export products to Iran include wooden sheets, spare parts, combustion engines, various types of thread, medical equipment and cosmetics.�

A large portion of Turkish export products to Iran does not include preferential tariff, he said, adding, �the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) was concluded between Iran and Turkey after 10 years at last.�

He put the trade volume exchanged between Iran and Turkey in the first three months of the current year (March 21 � June 22) at more than $2.5 billion, showing a considerable growth in terms of export of Iranian products to Turkey as compared to the last year�s corresponding period.