Talking to Mehr News correspondent on Sunday, Dehghan argued that that EU’s trade mechanism for Iran, officially called INSTEX (Instrument for Supporting Trade Exchanges), is a trap laid down for Iran by Europe and in coordination with the United States.
He explained that Europe does not have raw materials for producing pharmaceuticals, and exports them from China and India; the two import destinations for Iran’s pharmaceutical needs.
He said Europe plans to sell exported raw materials for pharmaceuticals to Iran with the country’s official rate of 42000 rials per dollar.
“Europe does not have the raw materials for producing pharmaceuticals, and in a few cases which it does, it does not have the permission to export them,” he maintained.
Dehghan stressed that Iran has no problem with importing the raw materials from China and India through currency exchange offices.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday issued a joint statement on the creation of INSTEX (Instrument for Supporting Trade Exchanges), a Special Purpose Vehicle aimed at facilitating legitimate trade between European economic operators and Iran, in a bid to bypass the US sanctions and convince Iran to remain in the nuclear deal following the US unilateral withdrawal from the agreement.
According to the statement, the mechanism will focus initially on the sectors most essential to the Iranian population – such as pharmaceutical, medical devices and agri-food goods, and will later expand to be open to economic operators from third countries who wish to trade with Iran.
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