November 30, 1404 at 11:57
The spokesman of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, while denying the liberalization of the import of household appliances, stated that the regulations in this area have not changed.
Following the spread of widespread rumors in cyberspace about the possibility of limited importation of household appliances to the coury, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade reacted quickly and announced the ministry’s clear position. According to the latest domestic news, Ezzatullah Zarei emphasized that the Ministry of Security’s approaches and support to domestic manufacturers of household appliances are still the same as the previous policies and no new changes have been made in the rules and regulations related to the import of these goods.
The ban on the import of household appliances is still in place
Following the widespread publication of numerous reports and speculations in cyberspace regarding the possibility of limited importation of various household appliances to the coury, the authorities quickly reacted to these rumors. In this regard, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, as well as the head of the National Union of Household Appliances Sellers, both denied any news about the extensive facilitation of imports, emphasizing that there will be no change in the existing policies.
These statemes are meioned in the coext that previously, based on Article 16 of the “Law on Maximum Use of Production and Service Capacity of the Coury and Protection of Iranian Goods” which was approved in 2018, it was prohibited to import any foreign consumables and consumer durables that are similar to domestic production. The noteworthy poi here is that the validity of this law was predicted uil the end of the 6th five-year developme plan of the coury, and it was not explicitly meioned in the draft or approvals of the 7th developme plan. However, the ban on the import of household appliances remains in force and has not been officially canceled.
In the same coext, Ezzatullah Zarei, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, in response to the questions raised about the latest implemeation status of the law banning the import of household appliances, announced that the policies of this ministry regarding imports follow the same previous procedures and no major changes have occurred in the related regulations. He further added that the discussions that have recely been raised regarding the issue of importing household appliances are actually related to the framework of the “Bag Bagging and Crossing the Border Law” and should not be confused with the general liberalization of imports.
Zarei further explained that based on the “New Border Import Law” it has been approved to issue a license for the import of goods by bagging and sailor methods, which will include a share between 3 and 7 perce of the coury’s trade balance. He also poied out that a specialized working group in the Trade Developme Organization is responsible for monitoring and organizing this type of import, and goods that are officially imported through border crossing and sailors are allowed to be transferred to other provinces of the coury.
Home appliances, backpacks and underwear are coded
Akbar Pazuki, the head of Tehran Household Appliances Sellers’ Union, coinued the previous explanations of the officials of the Ministry of Security and announced that there has been no general liberalization in the import of household appliances. He emphasized that the issue raised regarding the ery of these goods is only limited to the previous plans related to the cooperatives of the border dwellers, the phenomenon of backpacking in the border areas and the ery of goods by sailors through dinghies.
Pazuki further explained that before, the goods that eered the coury through these unofficial sources did not have any ideification code and tracking code, which created many problems in monitoring and corolling the market. But now, based on the new measures taken, it has been decided that all the household appliances imported from the backpacking and backpacking routes are also required to receive an ideification code and a tracking code.
The head of the Household Appliances Sellers Union poied out that by having an ideification code and a tracking code, any imported product will be recognized as a completely legal and official product by all releva organizations and regulatory bodies, including the Ceral Headquarters for Combating Goods and Currency Smuggling, the National Standard Organization of Iran, the Customs Departme of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Inspection of Trade Unions and even the trade unions themselves.
In order to increase the trust and awareness of consumers, he iroduced a simple method to check the autheicity and details of goods with ID codes. According to Pazuki, every buyer can eer the system that displays the information about the product by dialing the command code #47777 through his mobile phone. In this system, it is possible to see the exact date of the goods’ arrival in the coury, as well as its ery pois and routes, which adds significa transparency to the purchase process.
It should be noted that the ban on the import of household appliances io the coury has been fully implemeed since 2017 and since then, most of the foreign goods that are seen in the Iranian market, unfortunately, have been imported through illegal means and in the form of smuggling. In rece years, this topic has led to many debates and coroversies in various circles. So that many ministers in differe governmes have put forward proposals to remove this ban, but in the end, none of these efforts have reached a specific and effective result.
Supporting domestic production or fielding monopoly?
The issue of banning the import of household appliances has always had strong supporters and oppones. Propones of import liberalization believe that these bans significaly limit consumers’ right to choose, and in fact, the basic right of citizens to access a diverse range of products with differe qualities has been ignored. They also warn that the lack of effective and constructive competition between domestic manufacturers and foreign brands will lead to an undisputed monopoly in the home appliance industry in the near future.
On the other hand, the oppones of import liberalization have their own reasons. They argue that Iranian producers are still not in equal and fair conditions with their powerful foreign competitors, and for this reason, they are unable to compete directly with them. This group believes that in order to reach maturity and empower a nasce or developing industry, governme support is necessary for at least several years, and these supports should coinue uil domestic production reaches a poi of quality and productivity that can be competitive in the domestic and global markets.
Another poi that the oppones of imports emphasize is reducing the depth of domestic production by importing finished products. They believe that imports should always be accompanied by the condition of transferring technology and technical knowledge in order to help upgrade and develop production infrastructure and local knowledge in the coury.
