US President Donald Trump on Monday said any country that does business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on trade with the US, as Tehran grapples with its most substantial anti-government protests in years.
Iran, a member of the OPEC oil producers group, exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to the most recent data from the World Bank.
Its top trade partners include China, other countries in East Asia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Germany.
Fuel is Iran's biggest export item by value, while major imports include intermediate goods, vegetables, machinery and equipment.
China
China is Iran's largest trading partner. Iranian exports to China amounted to $22 billion in 2022, with fuels accounting for more than half of the total, according to the World Bank. Imports from China stood at $15 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.
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.
Turkey
Iran's exports to Turkey hit $5.8 billion in 2022, with imports amounting to $6.1 billion, according to the World Bank.
Germany
Iran's exports to Germany stood at $178 million in 2022, while imports totalled $1.9 billion.
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.
China's heavy reliance on Iranian oil imports
Additionally, China, the world's largest crude importer, is the main buyer of oil from OPEC producer Iran, leaving Beijing uniquely exposed to any supply disruption fromconflict in the Middle East.
Beijing, which is also the biggest buyer of oil from Venezuela and a top importer of oil from Russia, has used purchases from the three countries facing various Western sanctions to save billions of dollars on its import bill in recent years.
How much Iranian oil does China buy?
China buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, data for 2025 from analytics firm Kpler showed. Iranian oil has limited buyers due to US sanctions aimed at cutting off funding to Tehran's nuclear programme.
China purchased on average 1.38 million barrels per day of Iranian oil last year, according to Kpler. That represented about 13.4% of the total 10.27 million bpd of oil it imported by sea.
Who are the main Chinese buyers of Iranian crude?
Chinese independent refiners known as teapots, clustered mainly in Shandong province, are the main buyers of Iranian crude, drawn by its discount to non-sanctioned barrels.
Teapots, which account for roughly a quarter of Chinese refinery capacity, operate on narrow and sometimes negative margins and have been squeezed recently by tepid domestic demand for refined products.
China's big state oil companies have refrained from buying Iranian oil since 2018/2019, traders and experts have said.
How much cheaper is Iranian oil?
Iranian Light crude has traded at around $8 to $10 a barrel below ICE Brent on a delivered basis to China since December, from a discount of about $6 in September, traders said. That means Chinese refiners save about $8 to $10 a barrel if they buy Iranian Light rather than non-sanctioned Oman crude, according to calculations by a trader and Reuters.
Discounts have widened due to ample supply in onshore tanks and floating storage.
Iran has a record amount of oil on the water, equivalent to around 50 days of output, as China has bought less because of sanctions and Tehran seeks to protect its supplies from the risk of US strikes, Kpler said.
Are US sanctions having an impact?
Washington reinstated sanctions on Tehran in 2018, and US President Donald Trump's administration has imposed several new rounds of sanctions on Iran's oil trade since taking office in January.
Trump's sanctions have included penalties on three Chinese teapots, which has curtailed buying from several mid-sized independents worried about being designated, Reuters reported.
What is Beijing’s stance on the Iran oil trade?
Beijing rejects unilateral sanctions and defends its trade with Iran as legitimate.
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.
What is happening with the Iranian protests?
This comes as anti-regime protests have erupted in all 31 of Iran's provinces over the past two weeks, leading to crackdowns and state-backed violence against demonstrators.
Some media outlets have reported that around 2,000 people have died during the protests. However, HRANA has only confirmed that 646 people have been killed during the course of the protests, 505 of them demonstrators.
Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, in a Sunday interview on Fox News, appeared to confirm the higher number, saying that Iranians "suffered more casualties than the US did after the 9/11 attack" in the past 48 hours.
"This is a moment that is defining. This is an opportunity to liberate that nation," Pahlavi added.