Foriegn Suppliers And Banks Are Not Interested In Accepting Iranian Money

A salesman counts money in Tajrish Bazaar, Tehran","caption":"FILE PHOTO: A salesman counts money in Tajrish Bazaar, Tehran, Iran August 1, 2019. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Reuters: Iran struggles to buy food in a world wary of touching its money

LONDON/SAO PAULO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Iran, creaking under the impact of U.S. sanctions, a collapse in oil sales and a severe COVID-19 epidemic, is scrambling to buy food and medicine to avoid a supply crunch. But it’s a struggle.

Despite such supplies being exempt from sanctions, banks and governments are reluctant to transfer or take Iranian money because they fear unwittingly breaching the complex U.S. restrictions, according to five trade and finance sources.

An approved trade channel launched by the Swiss government, and backed by Washington - the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Agreement (SHTA) - went live in February after over a year of work to facilitate such Iranian purchases from Swiss companies.

Yet Iran’s central bank (CBI) has been unable to transfer the billions of dollars worth of oil export cash it had built up between 2016 and 2018 to bank accounts working with the SHTA, the five sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

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WNU Editor: Iran's economy is going to get hit again .... Headache for OPEC as oil market structure signals return of glut (Reuters).

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