Iran’s request for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) was turned down for the 14th time as a result of U.S. pressures.

Esfandiyar Omidbakhsh, Head of the Plenipotentiary Office of the Ministry of Commerce added that the main reason for disagreement with Iran’s accession to the WTO was political disputes with the United States.

"The economic situation of Iran is not very different from that if the other 26 countries that are currently negotiating the joining of the WTO. Regardless of our economic woes, they cannot be considered as an obstacle to Iran’s joining the WTO and it is clear that Iran is merely grappling with a political problem," he said.

Pointing to the beginning of Iran’s negotiations for joining the WTO, Omidbakhsh noted that no official in the country could make a decision about joining WTO because it needed a multi-stage process. For this reason, the problem should be tackled according to a clear and consolidated political and economic diplomacy.

Iran applied to join the WTO in 1996, but the request was suspended only due to opposition put up by the United States. After a long time, Iran’s request was accepted to be discussed in 2001, but the only development of the recent years has been renewed U.S. opposition, so that, during official sessions in all 14 instances, the U.S. representative continued its opposition without any logical reason.

To join the World Trade Organization, we must accept its rules and regulations as well as allow access to the free economic market, because inattention to free market principles and not accepting related commitments would be major obstacles to our country being accepted as a member.

Referring to compilation of the Fourth Economic Development Plan, he noted that the main axis of the plan apparently was looking at development of the national economy from the standpoint of global economy, which required serious interaction with the global economy.