Iran, China’s main trading partner in Middle East: Official
Iran is the top exporter of goods to China among Middle Eastern countries, said the head of Iran-china Joint Chamber of Commerce.
Asadollah Asgaroladi further said the East Asian country is now the biggest trading partner of the Islamic Republic describing the Iranian year to March 20 as ‘a good year for the country’s exports’, Tasnim News Agency reported.
He predicted that in the year to March 2019, exports would increase by five to seven percent compared to the year which ended on March 20.
China imported goods worth $18.579 billion from Iran in 2017, which is about 25 percent higher than the figure for 2016.
In January 2016, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Tehran and said, “We predict that the value of economic exchanges between Tehran and Beijing would rise to $600 billion in 10 years.”
Indications are growing that Iran and China are moving closer to a plan to eliminate the dollar from their mutual trade transactions.
The plan was a key topic of discussions during a recent visit to Tehran by Chen Yuan, the vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Chen, specifically raised the elimination of dollar in Tehran-beijing trade and replacing it with the local currencies of the two countries in his meeting with Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). According to a statement on CBI website, the Chinese official described the current international payment mechanisms as unfair.
He said the international banking relations would improve if the dominance of certain developed countries on payment mechanisms would be eliminated.
This would require serious efforts by all countries, underlined Chen, who was the chairman of the China Development Bank from 1998 to 2013.
“We could use the experiences of European countries in establishing the euro as a common currency between many countries, which is not exclusively controlled by a single country. But until then, we need to utilize the maximum available capacities to expand our banking relations,” CBI quoted him as saying. Seif called for measures to facilitate Iran-china banking relations. Iran had lately established ties with the Exim Bank of China as well as the China Development Bank, he said adding that such moves could help the expansion of trade between the two countries.
Iran’s top banker said a monetary deal between Tehran and Beijing to enable their traders to use the local currencies would be instrumental in efforts to cut reliance of Iran and China on the dollar.
Seif further said China’s experience in encouraging the use of the Yuan in trading with other countries can be an example for other countries to follow.