Instex

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Instex
legal form Société par actions simplifiée
founding 29 January 2019
Seat Paris , France
Website https://instex-europe.com/

Instex stands for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges 'instrument to support trade activities' , a special purpose vehicle founded in 2019 by member states of the European Union in the French legal form of the SAS for bartering with Iran . It is designed as a barter clearing house . So far Instex has only closed one deal and the continuation of the payment channel is questionable at the present time.

backgrounds

Iran was promised the lifting of economic sanctions for the exit from its nuclear program . After the US announced its withdrawal from this 2015 Vienna nuclear deal , Germany , France and the UK decided to adhere to the agreement. They stress that Iran has kept all its written commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed this 13 times after independent studies. In order to avoid economic sanctions by the USA against this endeavor, a blockade statute that the EU had already adopted in 1996 was used. For practical implementation in this context, Instex was initiated in January 2019 as a special purpose vehicle , which should enable payment transactions for Iran transactions to be processed without private banks being exposed to penalties for using the US currency. The special purpose vehicle is intended to enable European companies to do business with Iran despite strict US sanctions. As an intermediary, it offsets claims from European and Iranian companies. So Iran can export oil or other products. Money for this does not flow to Iran through banks, but to European companies that sell goods in Iran.

The special purpose vehicle based in Paris is of interest to companies that prefer trading with Iran over trading with the USA and are not afraid of being excluded from the US market. The management initially took over the German Per Fischer , a former manager of Commerzbank , who gave up the post after six months. The UK is to take over the chairmanship of the board of directors.

On June 28, 2019, the EU announced that Instex is functional and the first transactions are being processed. In mid-July 2019, representatives of the Russian Federation expressed their interest in Russian participation in Instex. In August 2019 it became known that Bernd Erbel would not take over the management of Instex as planned. Instead, Michael Bock was chosen as the new president.

After the US killed Qasem Soleimani , Nathalie Tocci revealed in January 2020 that Instex only had a volume of $ 2 million for the month. The European Union was simply not brave enough to implement it and, in addition, a French special initiative by President Emmanuel Macron delayed Instex. There is now hardly anything that can be done to save the nuclear deal. A few days later, Iran announced that it would no longer adhere to the 2015 agreement.

The USA apparently tried to prevent the implementation of Instex as much as possible. According to press research, not only the participating companies but also Instex employees were threatened with sanctions.

Predicted impact

According to the assessment of the columnist Leonid Bershidsky from May 2019, the blockade statute has proven to be largely ineffective against the US sanctions because no state compensation was anchored for companies that are punished by the US for trade in Iran. The blockade statute has so far - with the exception of an application in relation to Cuba in 1997 and 1998 - not had the hoped-for effect. Taken by itself, Instex is risky for EU companies in practice, since its use would conflict with US money laundering standards and the US allegation of financing terrorism . Furthermore, in the European Union, the exit from Iran trade for corporations was exempt from punishment after notification, so that many companies choose this option. In Bershidsky's opinion, it is more effective to file a lawsuit against US sanctions in an American court with reference to the applicable international law.

implementation

In Germany, the first deal via Instex was announced in February 2020 and completed in March 2020. It is said to be a drug delivery in the amount of less than 1 million euros.

Members

Germany, France and the UK are partnering with Iran in the EU payment system for Iran trade. On November 29, 2019, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden jointly announced that they would cooperate with the special purpose vehicle.

countries Date of joining Remarks
IranIran Iran 29 January 2019 Founding member
GermanyGermany Germany 29 January 2019 Founding member
FranceFrance France 29 January 2019 Founding member
United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom 29 January 2019 Founding member
BelgiumBelgium Belgium 29th November 2019
DenmarkDenmark Denmark 29th November 2019
FinlandFinland Finland 29th November 2019
NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands 29th November 2019
NorwayNorway Norway 29th November 2019
SwedenSweden Sweden 29th November 2019

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chase Winter: What is the EU-Iran payment vehicle INSTEX? In: dw.com. January 31, 2019, accessed February 10, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Steven Erlanger: 3 European Nations Create Firm to Trade With Iran, but Will Anyone Use It? In: nytimes.com. January 31, 2019, accessed February 10, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Matthias Gebauer, Christoph Schult: Circumventing US sanctions: German diplomat Bock is to head the Institute for Iran Trade. In: Spiegel Online . September 5, 2019, accessed September 5, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Peter Kapern: Payment channel for Iranian businesses: Is Instex a dead bullet? In: Spiegel Online . January 9, 2020, accessed January 11, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Markus Becker, Peter Müller and Christoph Schult: Europe: The Iran Deal can hardly be saved. In: Spiegel Online . January 10, 2020, accessed January 11, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Henning Jauernig: Institute for Iran Trade handles first business. In: Der Spiegel . March 31, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Christoph Schult: German banker heads EU payment system for Iran trade. In: Spiegel Online . January 31, 2019, accessed June 10, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Thomson Reuters: Europe says Iran trade channel operational statement. Retrieved July 15, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Anja Holtschneider: Russia expresses interest in the European payment system Instex. Handelsblatt, July 18, 2019, accessed on July 30, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Designated head of the Iran Society withdraws , Jüdische Allgemeine , August 9, 2019
  11. ↑ Matthias Gebauer, Christoph Schult: Circumventing US sanctions: German diplomat Bock is to head the Institute for Iran Trade . In: Spiegel Online . September 5, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 5, 2019]).
  12. ↑ Steven Erlanger: "Suleimani's Gone, and the Iran Nuclear Deal May Be Next," NYT, January 3, 2020.
  13. ↑ Martin Chulov and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad: "Iran ends nuclear deal commitments as fallout from Suleimani killing spreads" , theguardian.com, January 5, 2019.
  14. ↑ a b Anna Sauerbrey: “First success for Europe's 'nevertheless' policy” , Tagesspiegel.de , February 13, 2020.
  15. ↑ Leonid Bershidsky: Europe Should Challenge the US Sanctions on Iran. Bloomberg, May 8, 2019, accessed June 10, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Francois Murphy: INSTEX Unlikely To Meet Anti-Money-Laundering Norms -US Radio Farda, May 7, 2019, accessed on July 15, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Leonid Bershidsky: Europe Should Challenge the US Sanctions on Iran. Bloomberg, May 8, 2019, accessed June 10, 2019 .
  18. ^ Joint statement by Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden on the connection to the Instex payment mechanism . November 29, 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2019 (Norwegian).