Samira Golkaran Moghaddam

Abstract
Throughout the recent decades, and in line with its policy of economic growth and development, Iran has been striving to increase its share in global trade. To this end, establishing new linkages and creating access to new markets can be very effective. For the identification of potential target markets, the potentials that these markets have for the exports of Iranian goods need to be identified. In this respect, due to lower transportation costs, regional markets will provide better conditions for the competition of Iranian products against foreign like products, and can be potential candidates for the conclusion of bilateral or multilateral trade agreements.
Accordingly, his study was aimed at evaluating the trade potentials of Iran and the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) namely: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Afghanistan and Bhutan.
At first the trade and economic conditions and of the SAARC member countries were studied.  The trend of trade relations between Iran and the countries was also investigated. Using the theory of regional integration, the requisites of the development of trade relations between Iran and the SAARC member states (in particular the expansion of Iran's exports to these countries) were studied. Trade indices such as trade potential and revealed comparative advantage were perfect tools to achieve the objective of the research.
The result of this study is a List of goods for which preferential tariffs can be requested from each of the SAARC member countries, in trade negotiations aimed at establishing a preferential trade agreement.

Keywords:

 The preferential trade agreement, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)