Syria and Iran have reduced customs tariffs levied on goods exchanged between them to 4 percent starting April 28, 5 years ahead of the target.

The announcement made by the Ministers of Economy of the two countries during the launch of a trade fair of Syrian products in Tehran comes a month after the entry into force of a bilateral preferential trade agreement (PTA).

The PTA, which is formally applied since March 21, was supposed to reduce tariffs on the goods traded between the two countries – with the exception of 85 items - to 4 percent in 2016. Until then tariffs were to be reduced by 20 percent every year beginning this March.

The two ministers also made the pledge of raising bilateral trade between them to USD 2 billion within three years – it stood at USD 312 million in 2010.

Syria and Iran have traditionally had weak economic and trade ties because of a lack of complementarity of their economies and because trade routes between them have been disrupted for long periods of time by strained political links with their neighbors, mainly Iraq and Turkey.