TEHRAN- The trade between Iran and European Union countries during the first seven months of 2019 stood at €3.087 billion, Tasnim news agency reported.

According to the latest data provided by Directorate-General of the European Commission (Eurostat), the trade between Iran and the EU nations has decreased by 73 percent compared to last year’s same period in which the figure stood at €11.514 billion.

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

EU countries exported €2.6 billion of goods to Iran in the said time, while the figure stood at €5.34 billion in the last year’s first seven months.

EU’s imports from Iran in the first seven months of 2019 also fell by 92 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, falling to €487 million. The EU imported €6.174 billion worth of goods from Iran in the first seven months of last year.

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 EU stood at €2.56 billion during the first half of 2019.

The figure shows 76 percent decrease from €10.67 billion in the first half of 2018.

While Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands were respectively the major exporters to Iran; Germany, Spain, France 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