Jan 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said any country that does business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on trade with the U.S., as Tehran grapples with its most substantial anti-government protests in years.
Iran, a member of the OPEC oil producers group, exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to the most recent data from the World Bank.
Its top trade partners include China, other countries in East Asia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Germany.
Fuel is Iran’s biggest export item by value, while major imports include intermediate goods, vegetables, machinery and equipment.
CHINA
China is Iran’s largest trading partner. Iranian exports to China amounted to $22 billion in 2022, with fuels accounting for more than half of the total, according to the World Bank. Imports from China stood at $15 billion.
In 2025, China bought more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, according to data from Kpler, an analytics firm. Iranian oil has a limited pool of buyers because of U.S. sanctions that seek to cut off funding to Tehran’s nuclear programme.
INDIA
India’s total bilateral trade with Iran stood at $1.34 billion for the first 10 months of 2025, according to India’s commerce ministry. Major Indian exports to Iran include basmati rice, fruits, vegetables, drugs and other pharmaceutical products.
TURKEY
Iran’s exports to Turkey hit $5.8 billion in 2022, with imports amounting to $6.1 billion, according to the World Bank.
GERMANY
Iran’s exports to Germany stood at $178 million in 2022, while imports totalled $1.9 billion.
SOUTH KOREA
South Korea’s exports to Iran between January and November 2025 were marginal at $129 million, while imports stood at $1.6 million during the same period, according to data from the Korea International Trade Association.
JAPAN
Japan imported modest amounts of fruit, vegetables and textiles from Iran and shipped some machinery and vehicle engines there, according to the latest trade data from Japan that goes through November 2025.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee, Heekyong Yang, John Geddie, Shubham Kalia, Akanksha Khushi; Compiled by Miyoung Kim)
