Study of Multilateralism of Foreign Trade in Iran by using the TOPSIS Method

One of the major issues at present in the Iranian economy is a greater regional convergence to increase trade and economic potential under Western sanctions. As a developing economy, Iran needs to multilateralize trade relations with other economies in the world in order to make good use of other countries' production advantages. In this regard, the main purpose of this article is to examine more closely the issue of Iran's multilateralism in foreign trade with a focus on the Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. To do this research, the method of performance evaluation based on Balanced Scorecard and ranking of options based on TOPSIS technique (TOPSIS) is used. The results of this study show the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's better rank than the Eurasian Economic Union for joining Iran on the basis of four areas of financial performance, internal market, internal process, growth and learning. It seems that the emergence of three emerging economies, including China, India and Russia, in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will create more business opportunities for the Iranian economy than the Eurasian Economic Union, which operates solely on Russian political influence.