British officials introduce INSTEX to UK businessmen

Per Fischer and officials from the UK Government spoke at an event jointly hosted by DIT and the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce (BICC) to brief businesses and banks on the recent developments of INSTEX. A Q&A was held that enabled businesses to feedback comments on how INSTEX should operate so as to be useful for Europe-Iran trade.

INSTEX was adopted by foreign ministers of the European trio on the sidelines of a European Union summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest on January 1.

INSTEX has been registered at the address of France's Economy and Finance Ministry in Paris. German banker Per Fischer has been chosen for a period of six months to run it. Also, a senior UK diplomat is expected to head the Supervisory Board.

During the meeting which was organized by Department for International Trade and Iran-UK chamber of commerce, British officials held talks on the way to facilitate the economic interactions between two sides. 

Meanwhile, Iran Ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad said Fischer had announced that despite existing challenges, INSTEX is seriously after maintaining its first trade exchange with Iran very quickly. 

The UK Department of International Trade too, tweeted that ' Huge interest as Per Fischer, President of INSTEX (Instrument for Supporting Trade Exchanges) talks to UK companies in London. We look forward to supporting more UK firms trading with Iran.'

In the meantime, earlier, Fischer in an interview with IRNA expressed happiness over his attendance in London meeting which would result in more interactions with UK banks and companies.

“I am pleased to be in London to conduct further technical exchanges with UK-based banks and businesses on the development of INSTEX. Today’s meetings have clearly shown the wide interest there is for using this mechanism. As we are getting closer to operations, these conversations are increasingly important to ensure INSTEX is fine tuned to the needs of the market. I look forward to further such meetings with key European partners.

Earlier, former UK foreign secretary Jack Straw said the UK along with Germany and France are not only firmly committed to the JCPOA, but they are also working very hard to set up the Special Purpose vehicle (SPV).

The UK political figure described the US move to violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and re-impose unilateral sanctions on Iran as 'an attempt to impoverish the Iranian people', noting that such measures very rarely hit the elites of Iran but will hit the ordinary people of the country.