US President Donald Trump on Monday said any country that does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on any trade with the US as Washington weighs a response to the situation in Iran which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years.
Iran, a member of the OPEC oil producing group, exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to World Bank's most recent data.
China and the United Arab Emirates are Iran’s largest trading partners, putting them at the top of the list of countries at risk of being hit by Trump’s 25% tariff threat, according to Bloomberg.
Countries like India, Brazil, Iraq, Türkiye and Russia are also major trade partners of Iran.
Fuel is Iran's biggest export item by value, while major imports include intermediate goods, vegetables, machinery and equipment.
China
China is the primary buyer of Iranian oil, which remains under international sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program.
In 2024, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $17.8 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 US sanctions that seek to cut off funding to Tehran's nuclear program.
Also, Iran has a record amount of oil on the water, equivalent to about 50 days of output, with China having bought less because of sanctions and Tehran seeking to protect its supplies from the risk of US strikes, data from Kpler and Vortexa shows.
Iranian oil imported by China is typically labelled by traders as originating from other countries, such as Malaysia, a major transshipment hub, and Indonesia.
Chinese customs data has not shown any oil shipped from Iran since July 2022.
UAE
While China is Iran's premier trade partner, the UAE is the second largest. Trade between Iran and the UAE has reached $16.11 billion, making it a vital center in Iran’s regional trade and putting the Emirates at the top of the list of countries at risk of being targeted by Trump’s tariffs.
Iraq
Iraq, Iran’s historical partner and geographically closest, ranks fourth globally with a trade volume reaching $12.3 billion, representing 9.9% of Iran’s total foreign trade activity.
In recent years, Iraq has relied on Iran to supply about 40% of its needs for gas and electricity, at a time when Iraqi infrastructure lacks the capacity to process natural gas for domestic use.
Iraq is already subject to US tariffs of 35% under Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal tariffs with many countries last August.
Currently, gas exports from Iran have been suspended or severely curtailed due to a combination of extreme domestic heating demand and broader economic pressures.
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.
The US president already imposed levies as high as 50% on Indian goods tied to their purchase of Russian oil. The two sides have been working for months to finalize a deal that would provide long-sought tariff relief to New Delhi.
Türkiye
Turkish exports to Iran were $2.3 billion in full-year 2025, while imports were $2.2 billion over 11 months of the year, according to sector and official data sources.
Germany
Iran's exports to Germany stood at around 217 million euros in the first eleven months of 2025, an increase of 1.7%, according to data from the state-owned international economic promotion agency Germany Trade & Invest. German exports to Iran fell by a quarter to 871 million euros over the period.
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.
