Power Industry Activist: We Export Iranian Goods as Turkish Products Due to Sanctions

According to a power industry activist, Iranian companies are forced to bring Iranian goods to Turkey by paying customs duties to the Turkish government and then export them to other countries under the label of “Turkish goods” due to sanctions and their related complications.

Alirezа Kalahi, head of the Wire and Cable Manufacturers Committee of Iran’s Electrical Industry Syndicate, said on Sunday, December 28, in an interview with ILNA news agency that Iranian companies also face problems in Iraq because they must receive their contract payments in dinars instead of dollars, which results in a 10% loss, and moreover they have to pay substantial fees to withdraw money from Iraqi banks.

Due to problems arising from sanctions and Iran’s abstention from joining the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), Iranian companies face many difficulties in economic dealings even with government economic partners, and the Iraqi government’s debt of 5 to 7 billion dollars to Iran for gas and electricity imports has become a complex issue.

According to this power sector activist, due to the cumulative problems, Iraq does not work with Iran on major oil projects when an international company is present, and for this reason, despite Iranian companies having the capacity for hundreds of millions of dollars in cable industry exports to that country, their total exports reach a maximum of 100 million dollars.

According to Mr. Kalahi, while governments and companies have found solutions to maintain these limited economic dealings with Iraq and Afghanistan, some other countries such as Kazakhstan have excluded Iranian companies from major projects due to the lack of banking relationships.

Last December, Bahman Salehi Javid, secretary of the Association of Iranian Technical and Engineering Services Exporters, reported that Iranian contractors are owed 800 million dollars by Iraqi state companies but are unable to collect this amount.

He also, while referring to investment problems in Iraq, warned government officials that “losing this market is a serious mismanagement and injustice to Iran’s economic system”.

Source: Radio Farda