Iran Able to Supply Venezuela With Needed Goods
IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK
TEHRAN – Director General for Europe-U.S. Office of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization of Iran Behrouz Olfat says Iran can provide Venezuela with its needed goods and it depends on settling the payment which has been rather resolved.
Speaking to ILNA, Olfat said that Iran in exports of food stuff, consumer and hygienic goods, and medicines has enough capacity to provide Venezuela with goods which are needed by the country but it depends on the settlement of payments and it seems the problem is getting resolved.
He said Iran’s trade with Europe has declined since the U.S. unilateral pullout of the JCPOA, and it is because of the economic structures and activities of European enterprises which were strongly affected. He further said that during the JCPOA, European officials signed the deal and accepted some obligations but in the modern day in the West, governments have no major roles in the economy as almost 98 percent of their economies are run by the private sectors and in fact the process of production and trade is under the control of the private sector and the government has insignificant role in it.
Olfat added that in the past two years, European officials at least in the public used to say that they were doing their best to encourage European enterprises to retain their trade exchanges with Iran but they have not even given any guarantee for its implementation. So in practice, European companies have lowered their trade with Iran significantly and some of agreements and contracts were halted or suspended, he noted.
He said as the result, Iran’s trade with Europe is facing downtrend as the trade volume with those states in the first quarter of 2020 comparing to the previous year has improved slightly but it is still negative.
On the function of Europe’s financial mechanism, INSTEX, Mr. Olfat said that this mechanism was unable to save Iran’s trade with Europe and it actually did not meet expectations.
He said issues like insurance, transportation and shipping are still under sanctions and they have made the INSTEX an ineffective mechanism.
Olfat further said that the Coronavirus pandemic has affected the world trade but despite the pandemic, Iran’s trade with Europe has improved slightly in the first quarter of 2020 but the virus’s negative impact on Iran’s trade has been between 40 to 50 percent.
He said Iran’s trade with the U.S. has been totally affected by the sanctions but Iran’s trade with other countries in the American continent like Brazil and Venezuela has grown positively especially with Venezuela which is rising significantly.
