TEHRAN- The trade between Iran and European Union countries during the first seven months of 2020 stood at €2.65 billion, data released by the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) showed.

The trade between Iran and the EU nations has decreased by nine percent compared to the last year’s same period in which the figure stood at about €3 billion, ISNA reported.

Most of the decline in the trade between Iran and its 27 European trade partners have been due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the TCCIMA report said.

The mentioned data indicate that in January 2020, when the coronavirus had not been widespread in different parts of the world, trade between Iran and Europe grew by more than 17 percent, but this figure decreased in the next month and fell to negative since March.

The biggest drop in the trade between the two sides was reported for July when the trade fell by about 20 percent.

As reported, Iran’s exports to the EU increased by 45 percent and 42 percent in the first two months of the year, respectively, however, the trend became negative in the following months.

EU’s exports to Iran also plunged 11 percent in the mentioned period compared to the figure for last year’s same time span.

Germany, the Netherland, Spain, and France were respectively Iran’s major trade partners in the mentioned seven months.

Like the previous periods, Germany was the country’s top trade partner among the European nations.

Europe’s trade with Iran dropped significantly following the re-imposition of the U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic, indicating the EU’s failure to defend Iran's interests in the context of the nuclear deal despite its promises.

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