Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.3
By Elnur Baghishov, Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Services offered through INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) will generate positive trade and finance gains to Iran in a short period, Iranian economy expert Mehrdad Emadi told Trend.
He pointed out that the announcement made in Germany concerning operationalizing the special purpose Vehicle (SPV) on January 31, entitled "INSTEX — short for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges is designed to support trade between Its European trade partners or EU+UK.
The new channel is specifically tailored to minimize possible if not probable future intrusions made by the U.S. Treasury into Iran-Europe trade and finance as long as Iran abides by the terms of the JCPOA and the transparency rules accepted in its financial transactions, noted the expert.
Emadi went on to add that although it is almost certain that the United States government will do its outmost to restrict the domain and the depth of the services offered through INSTEX, E3 (Germany, France and the UK) seem to be resolved to support the JCPOA and help Iran to reap the economic benefits of the agreement.
"This said, in its early stages, I expect some grumbling from certain quarters in Tehran who have used every opportunity to blame Europe for the lack of economic progress in the country. In spite of this, I expect that within a short period, services offered through INSTEX will generate positive trade and finance gains to Iran which in turn may help to somewhat calm down the anti-western segments of the political apparatus," he concluded.
On Jan. 31, three European countries – France, Germany and the UK (shortened as E3) – officially announced the creation of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a special purpose vehicle, to allow them bypass US sanctions on trade with Iran. INSTEX facilitates non-dollar trade with Iran, allowing European companies to trade with the Islamic Republic without being hit by the sanctions.
US President Donald Trump declared Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018. Trump also announced the restoration of all sanctions against Iran, including secondary ones against other countries doing business with Iran. The United States re-introduced part of the sanctions against Iran on August 7, 2018, while the second batch of the sanctions came into effect on Nov.5, 2018.
The US government has agreed to let eight countries, including South Korea and Japan, as well as India, keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes sanctions on Tehran. The waivers have been granted for six months.