BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend
The value of trade turnover between Iran and France will be less than 165 million euros in the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020), Iranian expert on energy issues Mehrdad Emadi told Trend.
According to Emadi, in 2017, it was decided that Iran's trade turnover with France would exceed 3.1 billion euros, while that figure reached more than 3.6 billion euros.
Emadi added that thus, the trade turnover between the two countries has decreased by more than 90 percent in 3-4 years.
The Iranian expert said that Iran's trade turnover with the European Union amounted to 10.5 billion euros in 2017. At that time, more than a third of it accounted to trade with France.
“Prior to implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5 + 1 group, representatives of 130 French companies visited Tehran and signed contracts in many areas in 2015. Examples of the cooperation within these contracts include the development of 11th phase of the South Pars gas field, production of engines and gearboxes in the automotive industry, and development of the railway sector,” he said.
Emadi said that at that time, Iran's energy sector was important to France. However, with the withdrawal of the US from JCPOA, French companies, like many others, withdrew from Iran. Thus, the Iranian market has lost its significance for France.
The Iranian expert noted that expectations for the lifting of US sanctions against Iran are very low, and the French businessmen who invested in projects in Iran in 2014 and 2015, no longer see Iran as a priority.
"If you look at the recent contracts with French companies, you can see that this country attaches importance to Turkey, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. As for the Persian Gulf countries, French companies are focusing on projects in the UAE, Qatar and, in the next phase, Saudi Arabia," he said.
Emadi said that political relations between the two countries are still positive. However, Iran's role in France's foreign relations is not so important.
Emadi added that in this regard, France turned to other countries. Although this was an additional cost for French companies, it was more expensive for Iran, because France was Iran's main partner in the European Union.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions against Iran in November of the same year.
In order to preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal stated in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories having not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
On Sept. 5, Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped to the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA. Iran no longer faces any restrictions on its nuclear program.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies and individuals.