Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Banks of Iran and Luxembourg are capable of establishing constructive ties, Ali Tayebnia, Iran's minister of economic affairs and finance, said.
Expressing Iran’s interest for expansion of trade and financial ties with Luxembourg, he said the current volume of trade between the two countries is lower than expectations, SHANA reported Oct. 18.
He made the remarks at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Minister of Luxembourg Etienne Schneider.
Speaking about Iran’s trade and financial capabilities, he called for expansion of ties between the two countries’ financial institutions and capital markets.
Although the nuclear related sanctions on Iran were lifted following the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on January 16, Iran still has difficulty establishing banking ties with leading European banks as they are worried about running afoul of US regulations.
Iranian officials have recently held several talks with European officials with an aim to remove obstacles against establishing banking ties.
The European countries exported more than 2.41 million tons of goods, worth $3.602 billion to Iran during the first six months of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 20-Sept. 21, 2016).
The Islamic Republic’s imports from Europe registered an increase by 26 percent in terms of volume and 20 percent in terms of value, respectively, as compared to the same period of last year.
In the meantime, Iran exported worth of $808 million of goods from the EU, indicating a 13-percent increase year-on-year.