European countries have officially opened new trade channels with Iran

The German foreign ministry said in a statement on behalf of Germany, France and Britain that the three countries had successfully completed their first deal with Iran through the trade support vehicle.Some analysts believe that the deal marks the formal opening of new trade channels between European countries and Iran and shows the efforts of European countries to safeguard the Iran nuclear agreement.

The trade support tool is a trade settlement mechanism European countries have set up with Iran to circumvent U.S. sanctions.In May 2018, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, then reimposed sanctions on Iran and threatened other countries with sanctions if they did not trade with Iran.In an effort to protect legitimate trade between European companies and Iran, Germany, France and the UK announced in January 2019 the establishment of a trade support facility to trade with Iran through barter.In December, six countries joined the mechanism: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.

Trade support instruments are not denominated in dollars, and there is no cross-border flow of money in the process, so they can help European companies trade with Iran around us sanctions.The initial goal is to export some humanitarian goods to Iran, while the long-term goal is to expand the range of traded products, allowing Iran to continue to export oil and import other goods or services from Europe in exchange.But under pressure from America's "long arm rule", European companies are wary of trying to do deals with Iran through this mechanism.

After the COVID 19 epidemic spread around the world, the United States did not relax the sanctions against Iran, but repeatedly increased "extreme pressure", making it difficult for Iran to import urgently needed medical supplies.Iranian President hassan rouhani has sent a letter to a number of world leaders, accusing the continued us sanctions of seriously hampering Iran's efforts to combat COVID 19, and calling on the international community to boycott us sanctions and support Iran's fight against the epidemic.The European Union's foreign and security policy chief said the sanctions should not prevent the international community from delivering necessary medical supplies to affected countries and that the eu was willing to help Iran through the crisis.

"These supplies will not only help Iran fight the outbreak, they will also help save the stalled nuclear deal."Georges zoopoulos, a scholar at the institute for European studies in nice, France, told the newspaper that the us blockade and sanctions have exacerbated the public health crisis in Iran, and that trade support tools have provided Iran with a "lifeline" to some extent.

The United States has so far refrainedfrom expressing clear opposition to new trade routes between European countries and Iran because of international pressure, but it is difficult to predict whether the United States will take steps to stop it after the outbreak, according to comments on the website eudynamics.How far the mechanism can go, Mr Zogopulus argues, depends on the outcome of the next game between the us and Europe.In any case, the launch of the trade support tool demonstrates the determination of European countries to uphold the Iran nuclear agreement, and shows that European countries are taking a substantial step forward on the road to de-dollarization.