German exports to Iran are already suffering from the re-imposition of US sanctions against the country, recent trade data obtained by Xinhua on Wednesday from the German Association of the Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) shows, reports Xinhua.
Speaking to Xinhua, DIHK trade expert Volker Treier said that German exports to Iran had fallen by 18 per cent since the announcement of the punitive economic measures by the United States. Treier noted that many of the once over 100 German companies with offices in Iran closed these again.
The first concrete evidence of resulting harm to German-Iranian bilateral trade was thus provided by the DIHK less than two months after US sanctions were enacted in August.
Aside from barring domestic Iranian companies from acquiring dollars, even foreign financial institutes which have subsidiaries in the US face reprisals unless they refuse to become involved in any transactions with counterparties from Iran.
Most European banks have consequently begun winding down their operations in Iran for fear of losing access US capital markets as a punishment, depriving German exporters of liquidity needed to conduct business with the country.
Treier predicted on Wednesday that a lack of available payments systems would continue to pose the "greatest obstacle" to German trade with Iran in the foreseeable future.
"Even companies that are not directly affected by US sanctions, for example those in the medical and health care sector, or those without US business, currently cannot find a bank that process their Iranian transactions," he said.
Dagmar von Bohnstein, German business delegate in Iran, has recently emphasized that domestic companies in Iran are in urgent need of political solutions which enable them bypassing US capital markets. Responding to such calls, all signatories of the original nuclear deal, except for the United States, announced on Monday that they would take steps to establish a new "Special Purpose Vehicle" towards that end.
