Per Fischer in Tehran: Talks on Ways to Enforce INSTEX

EghtesadOnline: President of Europe's Special Purpose Vehicle known as INSTEX, Per Fischer, is in Tehran to attend talks between Iranian authorities and representatives from France, Germany, Britain, and the European Union on how to best implement the payment channel.

News ID: ۷۴۶۹۱۴

13 March 2019

A meeting was held between delegations from the Foreign Ministry and relevant bodies and the EU economic and political delegations, IRNA reported.

In a talk with Financial Tribune last week, the UK trade commissioner to Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan Simon Penney had said the focus of the technical team comprising E3 and EU officials will be on creating a counterparty mirror entity in Iran.

The French Embassy also reported the trip of the INSTEX president in a tweet saying that the newly appointed chief was welcomed by the E3 heads of missions in Tehran, according to Financial Tribune.

In its tweet, the embassy called the visit an “important step to discuss with Iranian counterparts how to make the EU-Iran trade mechanism operational.”

Details about cooperation between the two entities (INSTEX and the Iranian entity) as well as traders’ access to the mechanism will be discussed in the Tehran sessions.

According to IRNA, the negotiating parties will also discuss measures to expand the scale and scope of INSTEX to process a wider range of trade.

The mechanism is intended initially for the export of food, medicine and medical devices to Iran. Later it is to be extended to other goods.

Iran’s Ambassador in London Hamid Baeidinejad said earlier 12 groups of merchandise can be traded via the channel, including agricultural products, raw material for producing pharmaceuticals and medicine.

Establishment of the financial mechanism was officially announced at the end of January in a statement by the three European signatories to the historic nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) in an attempt to promote non-dollar trade with EU members after the US abandoned the 2015 agreement  last November and imposed new sanctions on Iran.