Announcing the readiness of Swedish companies to be present in Iran
Chairman of the Iran-Sweden Joint Chamber of Commerce: The Swedes have a very good view of our market and are still following the Vienna talks and hope that these sanctions will be lifted as soon as possible so that they can enter our market. Most Swedish companies in Iran have fully and strongly expressed their desire to enter the country if sanctions are lifted.
According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, Abdolreza Rezaei Hanjani said about the trade process between Iran and Sweden: The Swedes have always been a good trading partner for Iran. Our imports from Sweden are capital and technological goods, that is, either capital and added value for the importer, as well as entrepreneurship, or technology and technical knowledge that increased the quality of our industrial products. The Swedes, like many other countries, did not sell us candy, chocolate and T-shirts, but goods imported from Sweden helped our industry. The Iranians were also a good trading partner for Sweden.
He added: "We do not have the problems that we have with the Swedes with many countries. Maybe there were very minor problems between the businessmen of the two countries, which because the parties accept the joint chamber as an arbitrator, what we say is accepted and done." Even during the embargo, we did not have much of a problem with Sweden. For example, we do not have blocked money in this country or it is not the case that money is paid and no goods are exchanged for it.
Referring to the Swedish interest in working with Iran, Rezaei Hanjani said: "The Swedes are always interested in working with us and now Swedish companies are ready to work with Iran, but because of the many interests they have in the United States, they are forced to operate in Iran." Do not go against the set course of sanctions, because their interests in the United States may be tens of times greater than their interests in Iran. In the previous embargo, unlike other European countries, the Swedes never left Iran, but their cooperation decreased. But this time they left Iran due to the pressure of sanctions, but in such a way that they have the opportunity to return immediately.
He added: "So the Swedes have a very good view of our market and they are still following the Vienna talks and they hope that these sanctions will be lifted as soon as possible so that they can enter our market." Most Swedish companies in Iran have fully and strongly expressed their desire to enter the country if sanctions are lifted. Iran has been a good and reliable trading partner for the Swedes, even in its worst economic conditions.
The head of the Iran-Sweden Joint Chamber of Commerce, referring to the amount of trade between the two countries, said: "Our trade with the Swedes has decreased significantly over the past few years." In 2017, the amount of trade between the two countries was about 496 million euros, which in 2018, with the beginning of sanctions, decreased by about 100 million euros and reached 396 million euros, which did not cause much difference, due to the fact that an important part of the year commitments 2017 was done in 2018. From 2019, the amount of exchanges between the two countries decreased sharply and reached about 66 million euros. In 2020, it fell again to the level of 41 million euros.
In response to a question about the sectors in which the Swedes are likely to be present, he said: "If the sanctions are lifted, what we will see most of the Swedes in will be the transport sector." Prior to the start of sanctions in 2018, Volvo had reached an agreement on 8,000 units in the modernization of the country's road fleet, and I think Scania also had an agreement for about 7,000 units, which was not done due to problems caused by the sanctions. But more than 60 percent of our transport fleet belongs to the Volvo Group, including Volvo itself, Mac America and Renault France, some of which may be as old as the 1960s.
Rezaei Hanjani pointed out: Therefore, I think that with the opening of the route, we can have a great job in the road transport sector. In addition, they will be active in the electricity, telecommunications, packaging, mining and metals sectors. Many factories were set up to supply raw materials for these companies, but after the sanctions, they either closed down or transferred their work to other companies.
He also referred to Volvo car parts that are in the country and said: "Car parts made did not include sanctions, but due to the banking problem and the fact that we did not have a bank transaction, we had problems to supply the parts." There was some money left over and part of it was supplied from other markets, which unfortunately we also faced the problem of sanctions in this case and many were forced to go to non-genuine goods.
A member of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce stressed the need to solve the FATF problem and said: "If the sanctions are lifted tomorrow morning but we can not complete the FATF and get off the blacklist, there will be practically no difference and no bank will work with us." Therefore, I think that now that the Vienna talks are underway and the political body of the country is looking to solve the problem of sanctions, the friends who are related to the FATF field should remove the obstacles in parallel. We implement most FATF clauses such as money laundering. There may be minor issues that can be resolved. Otherwise, all this effort will not go anywhere.
He concluded: We do not deal much with consumer goods with the European continent, most of our activity is with capital goods. Sweden is the strongest startup center in the world after the United States. We can create a good atmosphere in our relationship with the Swedes and add a new area as a startup area to our international trade.
