EU Urged to Operationalize INSTEX
IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK
Head of Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce Masoud Khansari in meeting with French Ambassador Philippe Thiebaudto Tehran urged European states to make more efforts to operationalize their financial mechanism for trade with Iran, the INSTEX.
During the meeting, both sides reviewed the current condition of trade relations between Iran and France and they called for accelerating the launch of the INSTEX for Iran’s trade with EU.
French Ambassador Ms. Thiebaud expressed French companies and French government’s interests for resolving differences, removing hurdles and lifting sanctions.
He once again pointed to the strong determination of French government for reducing the current tensions between Iran and the U.S., adding that French President Emanuel Macron is striving to restore an economic ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.
Thiebaud added that the French government’s proposal for launching a financial credit line between Iran and the UE is one of the solutions that French government has presented to solve problems resulted from the U.S. sanctions.
He once again repeated French companies’ interests for continuing economic and trade cooperation with their Iranian counterparts, adding that the French government is trying to assure French small and mid-sized companies which are concerned about the future of their cooperation with Iran because of the U.S. sanctions.
He pointed to the latest statistics released by both countries, adding that those statistics indicate that the trade between Iran and EU has fallen sharply in the first half of the year. He then pointed to Europe’s proposal for launching a financial mechanism for trade with Iran, the INSTEX, noted that he understands Iran’s recent disappointment for delay in operationalizing the mechanism, adding that they are after launching a sustainable financial and long-term mechanism.
Thiebuad reiterated that France and other governments in the INSTEX are seriously striving to operationalize the mechanism provided that Iranian company in the INSTEX also starts its activities faster.
He stated that French government is working to encourage more countries to join the INSTEX. He also noted that head of the INSTEX is to visit Tehran in late October, as he is to meet Iranian companies and private sectors which are exchanging trades with their European counterparts.
Meanwhile, Mr. Khansari, for his part, said that the ground for cooperation between small and mid-sized enterprises of Iran and EU is ready, adding that despite this readiness, the problem of launching the INSTEX still remains, and reiterating that Iranian company which is to act in the INSTEX has been registered and is ready to begin its activities.
He further said that both countries can begin cooperation by bartering goods, stating that it seems the main problem in operationalizing the INSTEX is injection of financial sources to the fund due to sanctions on Iran’s oil and lack of interests among European countries to buy Iran’s oil and it needs other channel sfor financing the INSTEX.
He warned that if the delay in launching the INSTEX continues, other countries may replace European companies in trade with Iran.
Meanwhile head of international affairs department of Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce Mr. Hessamuddin Hallaj said that according to the recent statistics released by EuroStat, the volume of Iran’s exports to France has declined by 100 percent and France’s exports to Iran has also fallen by 63 percent in the first half of 2019.
