Tehran – Iran is interested in a trade agreement with the Mercosur. The intention was expressed during a meeting of Iranian authorities with the Brazilian minister of Development, Industry and Trade, Miguel Jorge, in Tehran, where he stayed on Monday and Tuesday (13th), heading a trade mission that comprises 86 businessmen from Brazil.
The request should be submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Relations and also discussed by a technical group that was established by initiative of the mission. The commission is going to travel to Iran again prior to president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s trip to the Middle Eastern country, due May, and will look into how to jointly develop industry-, investment- and trade-oriented cooperation, among other fields. The group will also discuss intellectual property rights.
On this Tuesday, minister Miguel Jorge met once again with the Iranian minister of Industry and Mines, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, as well as with the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and minister of Trade, Babak Afghahz. Ahmadinejad and Miguel Jorge had already met, during the trip of the Iranian president to Brazil, last year, on which occasion they discussed the possibility of the current mission – which also includes Lebanon and Egypt – passing through Iran.
At the meeting in Tehran, they discussed trade. According to Jorge, several Middle Eastern countries have trouble exporting to Brazil because their economies are too linked to the petrochemical industry. However, according to the Brazilian minister, Iran has a large market. "The country has 72 million citizens, an industry to be reckoned with, and is organized, even though there is a high degree of state presence,” said Jorge.
The minister also claimed, during a press conference, that Brazil is willing to buy fertilizers from Iran. “We have one of the world’s foremost agricultures and we import lots of fertilizers. Presently, nearly 70% of our fertilizer imports come from an Asian country. Iran is a manufacturer of phosphate and urea, which are of interest to us,” he said. The minister invited private and state-owned Iranian companies to go to Brazil in order to sell their products.
“We are not interested in such a strongly unbalanced trade balance,” he stated. Brazilian exports to Iran totalled US$ 1.2 billion last year, whereas Iran sold the equivalent of US$ 19 million to Brazil. Jorge and the delegation will be on Egypt on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, the group will be in Lebanon.
*The journalist travelled by invitation of the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum