TEHRAN, Iran, Nov. 25
Trend:
Iran's economic problems will not be resolved until the elimination of banking obstacles, director of Europe and America Department at Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO) said.
Referring to a joint project between Iran and United Nations International Trade Center with the support of the European Union, Behrouz Olfat announced that “The first part of this project, which is the national export strategy, has been completed,” Trend reports citing ILNA.
“Within the framework of the national export strategy, 6 sectors of auto parts, ICP, fruits and vegetables, petrochemicals, tourism, and industrial goods, have been addressed as extensible sectors in the first phase,” director of Europe and America Department at Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO) said.
“Negotiations between the companies will start virtually from December 2nd and will last for 20 days,” he said. “A conference will be held on December 14 to 16 with 8 specialized panels.”
He went on to say that 90 percent of the European and Iranian participants in the online conference will be small and medium-sized companies.
Regarding Iran's export capacity to Europe, Olfat says that "Under normal circumstances, (in the absence of any restrictions such as sanctions, banking obstacles, and transportation problems) Iran can achieve $ 8 to $ 10 billion of export a year.
"Of course, international conditions will never be so easy for Iran,” he said adding that even if the sanctions will be lifted, we face banking restrictions, some of which relate to non-approval of FATF-related rules by Iran.
“If Iran never joins the FATF, banks around the world, especially in Europe, will have trouble in working with Iranian banks,” he noted.
He noted that connection to Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communications (SWIFT) financial messaging service can be resumed by lifting sanctions.
“But the FATF is a protocol to which the world's banks have joined, and whether we want or not, the relation with international banks cannot be resumed while Iran is blacklisted by FATF,” he added.