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MNA, 2 August 2017

An Iranian MP, while pointing to ratification of Iran-Armenia border cooperation agreement by the Parliament, said the deal aims at boosting goods transit between the two sides.

Zahra Saei said the agreement pertained to Norduz Border Terminal and was part of the plan for common border management with neighbors aimed at maintaining Iran’s positive trade balance in the post-sanction era.

“The project, which is in accordance with the recommendations of Kyoto Convention and Chapter VII of the International Covenant on coordination of border control, has been put on agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

The official said the common border gateway plan mainly aims at avoiding similar measures in border customs of the two countries in order to facilitate and speed up customs formalities.

Other merits of the plan include development of business diplomacy with neighbors which is a part of general policies of Resistance Economy since it leads to stronger economic and trade relations with neighbors, facilitates goods transit as well as that it reduces border trade costs, customs offenses parallel workload and smuggling of goods.

Saei reiterated that after sanctions removal, IRICA sought to launch the common border gateway plan with several neighboring countries as evidenced by the MoUs exchanged with Turkey, Azerbaijan Republic, Afghanistan, Russia, Armenia and Turkmenistan though only the one with Turkey has become operational.

“Norduz Border Terminal is the only common land border with Armenia,” emphasized the Iranian MP concluding that, according to official statistics, value of non-oil exports to Armenia in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20) stood at 107.35 million dollars while Iran imported products worth 443.512 million dollars in the same period.