The shipping company tripled costs
Former Vice President of Iran Chamber of Commerce: In maritime trade, due to the interruption of services of foreign companies from Iranian ports, our trade is limited to the transportation of goods by the Islamic Republic Shipping Company and several small companies that help transport containers. As a result, shipping rates have almost tripled, which is very unusual, meaning that if we were under normal circumstances, these costs would be one-third.
According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, Pedram Soltani said about the problems facing Iran's trade: "First of all, our most important problem is banking relations with other countries, which we have to continue our exchanges through unconventional ways such as exchange offices and paper companies." And greatly increases imports.
He said: "Due to the sanctions, the desire of buyers and sellers for Iranian goods has decreased, and especially in the purchase of equipment and machinery, as well as exports to Europe, Japan and South Korea, we have either been deprived or done through exchanges."
Soltani continued: "In maritime trade, due to the interruption of services of foreign companies from Iranian ports, our trade is limited to the transportation of goods by the Shipping Company of the Islamic Republic and several small companies that these companies assist in transporting containers." As a result, shipping rates have almost tripled, which is very unusual, meaning that if we were under normal circumstances, these costs would be one-third.
The former vice president of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce claimed: The shipping company is taking advantage of the situation under the pretext of sanctions and restrictions in order to triple the costs and does not accept any responsibility. But small companies charge far less, despite their lower capacity. I said this to let you know that our problem is not only foreign companies, but also some domestic companies are taking advantage of the situation.
Asked what effect the launch of shipping lines to Oman or Kuwait and Iraq could have on Iran's trade volume, Soltani said: "We have to look at which countries account for the bulk of our maritime trade." In the current situation, our first destination is the UAE, where most of our goods are re-exported, ie the UAE companies are in the middle of our trade with other countries, which increases costs, but a large volume of our maritime trade outside the Persian Gulf and with countries It is like China, which has the largest holders of raw materials such as petrochemicals, minerals and petroleum products.
He continued: "Most of our trade is with India and China, so the launch of these sea lines does not help our trade volume much."
Criticizing the lack of accountability of economic officials for their decisions, he said: "They will never explain and do not accept responsibility." Unfortunately, in addition to the fact that some of them do not have enough knowledge, they limit the decisions to the information of the circles and quasi-experts, and in the end, they do not accept any responsibility in this matter.
Soltani continued: "We officially imposed self-sanctions on the FATF issue, which we could practically avoid some of the problems." I do not claim that if we accepted the requirements, all our banking problems would be solved, but our problems would not be added, that is, being on the FATF black list has doubled the problems of sanctions, and even if these sanctions are lifted for another year, this list will be removed. , Difficult conditions are ahead of us, and certainly many of our transactions will be costly and limited to small banks, which in this way can have greater benefits than banking operations, but it is unlikely that large banks will be willing to work with the Iranian economy. So even the day after the sanctions, banking will be very costly.
The former vice president of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, in response to the question what is the main solution in the current situation, said: I do not have a solution for this situation because it is a political solution and somehow we passed the 90th minute and reached a threshold that depends on the election We are America. In fact, we have raised our hands so that Trump does not win the election, so that at least four years of economic pressure can be eliminated by negotiating a new administration. Of course, it should be noted that it is not clear when and when the lifting of sanctions will be successful, because I do not know that fundamental US policies in Iran and the Middle East will change, although the tone of politicians and their tactics may change.
* ILNA
