TEHRAN- The trade between Iran and European Union countries during the first nine months of 2019 stood at €3.9 billion, ISNA reported.

According to the latest data provided by the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries Mines, and Agriculture (TCCIMA), despite the EU claims about the implementation of the trade mechanism with Iran (known as INSTEX) the trade between the two sides has witnessed a significant fall compared to the last year.

As reported, Iran exported only €500 million of commodities to Europe in the mentioned period to register a 94-percent fall compared to last year’s same period in which the figure stood at €8.6 billion.

EU’s exports to Iran also plunged 51 percent in the mentioned period compared to the figure for last year’s same time span.

EU countries exported €3.4 billion of goods to Iran in the said time, while the figure stood at €6.9 billion in the last year’s first nine months.

The significant drop in EU trade with Iran in 2019, following the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran, shows that the EU has failed to defend Iran's interests in the context of the nuclear deal despite its promises.

According to the European Union’s statistics agency, the trade between Iran and the EU stood at €2.56 billion during the first half of 2019.
The figure shows a 76 percent decrease from €10.67 billion in the first half of 2018.

While Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands were respectively the major exporters to Iran; Germany, Spain, Romania, and Italy were the top importers from the country in the said time span, this year.

In May 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump formally pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal that was struck between Iran and world powers in July 2015.
Following Trump’s decision, in January 2019, France, Germany and Britain (known as the E3) introduced an Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) which was meant to facilitate legitimate trade between European economic operators and Iran in order to convince Iran to stay in the 2015 nuclear deal.

EF/MA