Four European Countries Ready to LC Opening for Iran: Deputy Head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mine and Agriculture Pedram Soltani said on Saturday that Iran is able to open Letter of Credit (LC) in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.
Soltani said following implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran’s expenses in international trade have been reduced and now through a number of banks the country is able to open LC in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.
Regarding LC opening by the European banks, Soltani said the banks, which are cooperating with Iranian banks, are considered small banks.
During the imposed sanction era, Iran had to pay costly expenses between 3 to 8 percent for transferring money with other countries, but now the expenses have reduced to less than half percent.
‘We were deprived from opening LC in international exchanges, but by elimination of limitations, we are not forced to do our business paying in cash,’ Soltani said.
He said the process to establish banking interactions is implemented gradually and added that one of Iran’s problems in the process was that Iranian banks were known as high risk banks.
Following agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 and implementation of the JCPOA in January 2016, international economic sanctions against Iran were removed.
In other news related to the possible business between Iran and EU we have the following:
The volume of trade between Iran and European countan ead it here:///ries witnessed a major leap in the fourth month of 2016, a report said.
The latest figures from EU’s statistical office Eurostat show that Iran’s exports to Greece, France, and Spain respectively increased 108-fold, 60-fold and 9-fold in April, compared to the same period last year.
The European Union (EU) member states’ imports of Iran saw a three-fold rise in April, it added.
The entire imports of the 28-member block amounted to 326 million euros. This is while that the number stood at 107 million euros in 2015.
The report also said that the turnover between Iran and Romania stood at 18 million euros in April with a 7.5-fold growth.
Belgium’s imports from Iran also witnessed an unprecedented growth in April, standing at 17.1 million euros.
However, Italy’s imports from Iran in the same period witnessed a 50 percent decline, reaching 21.7 million euros.
The trade volume between Iran and Europe rose after Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 finalized the nuclear deal and started implementing it on January 16.
The agreement terminated all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran.
