Azernews.Az

By Dalga Khatinoglu

Head of Persian News Service of Trend Agency

Iran is going to appoint five new commercial attaches in Europe in a bid to boost its trade ties.

Five new commercial attaches will be dispatched to Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, and Switzerland, Miraboutaleb Badri, Deputy Director of Iran's Trade Promotion Organization told Mehr news agency on May 4..

Iran and EU faced a significant drop in trade turnover during Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads' time in office due to Tehran's disputed nuclear program and hard-liners' aggressive foreign policy.

According to Iran Custom Administration and Iran Commerce Chamber's official statistics, Europe had about 50 percent share in Iran's imports in 2005, as well as some 15 percent of Iran's total non-oil exports.

Iran's main European partners in 2005:

Iran and Europe's trade turnover has decreased dramatically since 2005, especially after the EU imposed tough sanctions over Iran's banking system, crude oil and petrochemical products exports.

Europe was the target of 18 percent of Iran's total oil exports in 2011, amounting to 480,000 barrels per day, but the EU stopped Iranian oil imports in mid-2012.

* Iran's fiscal year starts on March 20, the table covers March 20, 2005 to the March 20, 2014.

However, the latest monthly report released by the Custom Administration says that Iran's exports to the EU increased by 15 percent between March 20, 2014 and April 20, 2014, compared to the same period last year. However, Europe Union's exports to Iran decrease by 25 percent during the mentioned period.

During last Iran's fiscal year, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland exported $2.5 billion, $ 850 million, $ 250 million and $2.33 billion worth goods to Iran respectively.

Iran's exports to these country's ware totally about $660 million.

Iran imported about $500 million from the EU and exported $98 million to them during the mentioned period.