Trade between Germany and Iran in the first two months of this year amounted to € 274 million.
Exports from Europe’s largest economy to Iran amounted to €233 million ($261 million) in January and February of 2019, according to data from the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry revealed on Friday, leadership.ng reported.
According to the figures, reported by the German Funke media group, imports from Iran hit to €41 million in the first two months of 2019.
Up to 7,000 German business enterprises are estimated to seek continued trade with Iran, said the managing director of the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce in February following the launch of a payment vehicle that enables continued European trade with Iran irrespective of unilateral sanctions by the United States.
Michael Tockuss said in an interview with the German business news weekly Wirtschaftswoche that the launch of the payment vehicle – known as the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges, or INSTEX – was a welcome development and that it would enable European companies to engage in barter transactions with Iran.
“Our estimate is that between 5,000 and 7,000 small- and medium-scale businesses are still after trade with Iran,” Tockuss said.
France, Germany, and Britain unveiled INSTEX, which is a special purpose vehicle (SPV), to facilitate legitimate trade between European economic operators and Iran.
INSTEX took months to prepare, and the idea to set it up came after the US unilaterally withdrew from a multilateral deal with Iran and five other, mainly European, parties.
