Six New European Nations Join Iran Barter System

Paris, London and Berlin on Saturday welcomed six new European countries to the INSTEX barter mechanism, which is designed to circumvent U.S. sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar.

These European countries are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, to join INSTEX as shareholders. The Paris-based INSTEX functions as a clearing house allowing Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange.

About Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges

• The founding member of INSTEX is France, Germany and Britain.
• This move will allow the European Union to circumvent U.S. sanctions in an effort to continue humanitarian trade with Iran after the US sanction under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
• It will allow trade between the EU and Iran without relying on direct financial transactions.
• INSTEX has been registered in France and will be run by German Commerzbank manager Per Fischer.
• It is based in Paris and functions as a clearinghouse allowing Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange.
• INSTEX will support legitimate European trade with Iran, focusing initially on the sectors most essential to the Iranian population – such as pharmaceutical, medical devices and agri-food goods.
• It aims in the long term to be open to economic operators from third countries who wish to trade with Iran and the E3 continue to explore how to achieve this objective.”
• The EU three, also known as EU big three, EU triumvirate or EU trio, refers to France, Germany and Italy, a group that consists of the three large founding members of the European Union;

JCPOA

• JCPOA is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement that Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the United States, UK, France, Russia, and China — and Germany) reached on July 14, 2015.
• It is the official name for the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal.
• Curb Iran’s nuclear programme: Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to destroy its stock of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stock of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce the number of gas centrifuges by two-thirds for 13 years.
• It agreed to enrich uranium up to just 3.67% and to not build any new heavy-water facilities, for the next 15 years.
• It agreed that for 10 years, uranium enrichment would happen only at a single facility, using first-generation centrifuges.
• And that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s nuclear watchdog, would have access to all Iranian nuclear facilities.
• In return for Iran verifiably abiding by these commitments, the US, EU, and United Nations Security Council nuclear-related sanctions on it were lifted.