ANKARA - Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Tuesday Iran`s rate of protection on Turkish industrial products is very high and it should be dropped to 4 percent.
Kursad Tuzmen and Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki co-chaired the Turkey-Iran 19th Joint Economic Commission meeting in Ankara.
"These rates (by Iran) reach up to 40 percent in machinery and electronics, 70 percent in textiles and 100 percent in automotive industry," Tuzmen said at the opening of the meeting.
However, Tuzmen said average rate of protection implemented by Turkey on Iranian industrial products was below 4 percent.
Noting that trade volume between Turkey and Iran was up by 52 percent in 2006 over previous year and reached 6.7 billion USD, Tuzmen said, "1.1 billion USD of this trade volume is Turkish exports to Iran and 5.6 billion is imports from Iran. So, we are not pleased with it."
Tuzmen reminded that Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement (ECOTA) between Turkey and Iran was signed three years ago but it is not in force yet. He said the agreement will be debated in Turkish parliament this week.
Iranian parliament is expected to ratify the agreement in March, he added.
On the other hand, Iranian FM Motaki said they want trade volume between the two countries to be at least 10 billion USD by the end of 2007.
Motaki set some possible areas of cooperation between Turkey and Iran as oil, gas and petrochemical industry, joint industrial production projects like automobile manufacturing, boosting cooperation on transportation and investment projects on mass housing.