TEHRAN, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Turkey are mulling a plan to achieve free trade between the two countries based on an earlier agreement to remove preferential tariffs, Press TV reported on Sunday.
The announcement was made by Mahmoud Vaezi, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, after his meeting with the visiting Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci.
Tehran and Ankara had already taken measures to realize the mutual trade objectives that they had agreed on during the earlier meetings between the presidents of both countries, said Vaezi.
Both sides need to enhance their banking cooperation to facilitate the expansion of their mutual trade, he stressed.
To this end, Iran and Turkey had agreed to study the mechanisms needed for using their own currencies in trade transactions between the two countries, he said, adding that the issue will be discussed in more precise details during an upcoming visit to Tehran by the governor of Turkish central bank.
During Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara in April 2016, both sides agreed to strengthen economic ties and cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
Energy-hungry Turkey imports large amounts of natural gas from Iran and the two countries are looking to boost banking and trade ties.
Iran and Turkey have stressed the boost of mutual trade value tripling it to 30 billion U.S. dollars annually.
A single purchase
