Iran-Turkey hope for preferential trade pact

On Tuesday, Tehran's Ambassador to Ankara Bahman Hosseinpour in a meeting with Turkey's Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz expressed the hope that the preferential trade pact between Iran and Turkey would be finalized to make possible free trade between the two countries. The Iranian diplomat referred to upcoming visit of Deputy Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Hamid Safdel to Turkey, and expressed the hope that the preferential trade pact would be finalized in the talks. Yilmaz thanked Iran for the hospitality shown in his trip, and said the decisions made in his talks with Iranian officials to continue discussions on preferential trade pact are very important. Iran and Turkey are determined to boost their trade exchanges to $30bln in the near future. Iran and Turkey have in recent years increased their cooperation in all the various fields of economy, security, trade, education, energy and culture. The two sides have exchanged several politico-economic delegations during the last few months. Meantime, in a meeting with Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz in Tehran last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had also said Tehran and Ankara should use opportunities to bolster their bilateral relations, particularly in trade. Ahmadinejad said the Iran-Turkey interactions are expanding and deepening day by day, adding that the two countries have common enemies who are against the promotion of ties between them.