Many have been looking for some political significance in this. But actually, Iranian purchases from the United States have only soared from infinitesimal to minuscule.
The growth is entirely in agricultural goods, mainly wheat, and likely reflects problems in Iranian agriculture. Iranian purchases of US agricultural products in the first six months of this year are up 266 percent compared to last year’s sales. Meanwhile, Iranian purchases of goods other than agricultural are down 46 percent.
As the accompanying table shows, Iranian purchases of American products are running at an annualized rate of $318 million this year, which is higher than in the previous three years but less than half Iranian purchases in 2008, the last time Iran made major agricultural buys in the United States. That was also driven by the need for wheat.
The chart shows that Iran’s purchases from the US this year do not approach historic highs. What the chart does not show is that Iranian purchases are a very small part of US exports. With total US exports exceeding $1.8 trillion a year, Iran’s share comes to a barely measurable 0.017 percent or 17/1,000ths of 1 percent.
Iran’s purchases of wheat this year and in 2008 are sizable enough to matter in that industry, but other purchases are negligible.
Due to US sanctions, Iran is able to buy little more than agricultural and medical products from the United States.
