Tehran, Berlin Seeking Revival of Economic Relation
IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK
TEHRAN – Ambassador of Germany to Tehran Hans-Udo Mutzel in meeting with Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce Masoud Khansari called for revival of bilateral trade relation and talked about revival of trade relations between Iran and Europe.
Speaking in the meeting, German Ambassador Mutzel emphasized the recent stance of German government for resumption of a new chapter in cooperation between Iran and Germany in all levels and said creating new economic opportunities are the start of new round of bilateral relations after determination of the result of the U.S. presidential election. He then announced readiness of the economic sector of German Embassy in Tehran for cooperation with Tehran Chamber of Commerce and identifying common trade and industrial grounds between economic enterprises of both states.
Mutzel also called for launching the second project for exchange of humanitarian goods between both states through the trading mechanism of INSTEX and reiterated despite problems and hurdles in way of revival of political relations between Iran and Europe which is still under heavy shadow of Trump Administration sanctions, operationalization of this project can signal a clear message from the economic sector to the statesmen that damaged relations between governments can be fixed very fast.
He also said that the INSTEX should not be tied to the bigger problems that there are still very complications in resolving them, reiterating that economic relations between Iran and Germany and then between Tehran and Europe can be developed step by step.
Meanwhile Khansari, for his part, called INSTEX a big failure which was not employed properly by the European governments.
He reiterated that INSTEX belongs to the U.S. maximum pressure era against Iran and with recent development in the White House, the hope for removal of sanctions has become colorful. He noted that so in the current condition, they should think of creating the grounds for financial and banking exchanges beyond the INSTEX between Iran and its trade partners, and with Trump’s exit from the White House, a good opportunity has been set in front of Germany as one of the major trade partner of Iran in order that Germans step in to restore banking interactions with Iran.
He then pointed to considerable amount of trade exchanges between Iran and Germany after the nuclear deal, the JCPOA, adding but after the U.S. pullout of the JCPOA, European governments had to follow the U.S. and stopped cooperating with Iran.
He added that since currently the hope for revival of the JCPOA has increased, Iran and Germany can start a new round of economic cooperation and announced readiness of Tehran Chamber for any cooperation with private sector as well as German Embassy in line with bolstering the ties.
