Main Characteristics of Bilateral Trade between Iran and South Korea: Focusing on Trade Diversification

Abstract

Although bilateral trade between Iran and South Korea reached a maximum of more than 12 billion USD in 2017, the withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear deal on May 2018 and its new plans for re-imposing sanctions on Iran may affect Iran-Korea bilateral trade. This demonstrates how Iran's trade relations are somehow fragile against sanction, and due to this fact, the expansion of non-oil exports can be considered as a major goal of Iran's development plans in trade and business. In this regard, it is essential to identify prospective areas to enhance non-oil exports and diversify trade between Iran and its trading partners like South Korea. Hence, this paper explores the main characteristics of bilateral trade between Iran and South Korea with a special focus on trade diversification. The implication of this study is that lifting embargos is not as important as addressing the technology gap when it comes to diversifying Iran-Korea trade relations. A policy of deep cooperation in investment and technology transfer is recommended in this respect. This paper specifically suggests to develop a deep level of cooperation in the two countries' SME activities in order to reduce the existing technology gap and promote trade diversification.