Comparative Study of Trade Capacities Estimation between Iran and D-8 Countries Based on Common Patterns of International Trade

On the one hand, D-8 countries due to their membership in the WTO, are considered as a competitor in the field of world trade, but on the other hand as an opportunity to transfer capital and technology for Iran. Because of this, the current study based on relevant conventional indices from various aspects dealt with assessment of trade capacities between Iran and other D-8 countries. The cosine measure showed that the degree of the similarity and complementary of Iran’s bilateral trade with Turkey, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia is high. Iran has also exporting high degree of the similarity with Pakistan's imports. In contrast, Egypt and Iran have the lowest potential for business development. Also, based on calculations of commercial potential; Iran has high bilateral trade capacity with Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia and has high export potential with Pakistan. On the other hand, Iran is the only country with a high importing capacity with Bangladesh. Also, based on revealed comparative advantage index, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, Bangladesh and Nigeria are the first to the eighth rank of comparative exports advantage in terms of variety of commodity groups. Results of the Drysdale index is also indicate the possibility of trade development between Iran, Indonesia and Pakistan.