Meeting Called to Resolve Petrochemical Export Ban Ambiguity

Effective from

12 May 2026

Issued by

Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade

Reference

No. 7708867

Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), under the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, has issued a notice on convening a joint meeting to resolve remaining ambiguities in the emergency-condition export restrictions covering petrochemical and hydrocarbon products.

The notice follows earlier correspondence from the Customs Administration’s Export Office, which had raised the difficulty of determining whether certain hydrocarbon formulations and constituent materials fall within the coded exceptions to the export ban. A working group established within the National Standards Organization of Iran had previously reviewed the classification issue and recommended case-by-case review, subject to the issuance of an export permit, for this category of products by the relevant specialized ministry office or agency.

The remaining ambiguities concern the export of tariff codes 27101990 and 27101290, covering naphtha (heavy, light, and intermediate grades), furnace fuel oil, and various petroleum solvents, as well as hydrocarbons produced by mini-refineries. The scope excludes all hydrocarbons containing xylenes (mixed, ortho, and para grades), toluene, acetic acid, benzene, lubricating base oils (lubcut), and isobutanol/MTBE, which remain governed by their own rules.

To resolve the outstanding issues, TPO’s Import and Export Regulations Office invited representatives from the Customs Administration’s Export Office, the National Standards Organization’s Quality Evaluation Deputy, the Ministry’s Office of Chemical and Polymer Industries, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company, the National Petrochemical Company’s Downstream Industries Development unit, and the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency to a session at TPO’s offices. Businesses exporting petrochemical or hydrocarbon products under the affected tariff codes should monitor subsequent customs notices for the meeting’s conclusions and any resulting clarification of the ban’s scope.

Key Details

• Approval authority: Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade
• Responsible organization: Not specified
• Classification: Circular
• Affected procedure: Exports
• Document number: 7708867
• Unique identifier: 405022202073
• Document date: May 11, 2026
• Publication date: May 12, 2026
• Effective date: May 12, 2026
• Expiration date: Not specified

This summary is provided for orientation only. The official Persian text issued by the relevant Iranian authority is the governing version.