Investigating the factors affecting the differences in the degree of trade similarity of Iran's copper industry trade with the countries of the ECO

In order to realize development programs based on non-oil exports, copper exports can be considered as one of the important resources in the field of foreign exchange to the country. Therefore, in this study, for the first time, the degree of similarity for convergence and feasibility of copper exports to ECO in the period (2020-2016) is investigated. The results of the gravity model indicate that the gross domestic product of the destination country with the data panel (0.677) and the dynamic data panel with generalized torques (GMM) effect (0.566) have a positive relationship with the copper trade, respectively. Significant and the effect of distance with copper exports has been estimated to be negative and significant. Also, the export potential index showed that the highest export capacity of Iranian copper is related respectively to Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The export capacity of Iranian copper to different countries of the ECO, which is of paramount importance to the potential of both turkey and Pakistan. Overall, the results of this study can be a very useful way for macro-planning to find the target markets for Iranian copper trade, especially in the group of ECO countries.