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I I r r a a n n E E c c o o n n o o m m y y U U p p d d a a t t e e
Issue 110/2016 – Monday October 17th
Content
Petroleum ministry assures: No problem with Iranian tankers’ insurance in Europe
An Iranian private business delegation to visit Germany and Austria
Petroleum ministry assures:
No problem with Iranian tankers’ insurance in Europe On Saturday, the daily Kayhan proclaimed that the EU has imposed “Heavy” sanctions against the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) that cannot be lifted for 30 years. The daily which is well-recognized for its anti-JCPOA articles and
editorials argued that NITC is “the latest victim of the post-JCPOA era.” Fars News Agency wrote that as per the 27-page EU court ruling, which has been handed down to NITC, no other court in the EU can annul the decree in the next 30 years according to which, EU insurers cannot underwrite Iranian oil ships. “The most important and strange part of this European court’s ruling is the sanctions against the stakeholders of NITC, which are Shasta (The Social Security Investment Company), the Oil Industry Pension Fund
Investment Company, and the Civil Servant Pension Organization,”
wrote Fars News Agency which seems to have access to a copy of the EU court ruling against NITC.
In response, Petroleum Minister’s Deputy for International &
Commercial Affairs on Sunday explained that “European insurers have no problem with insurance of Iranian oil tankers.” Amir-Hossein Zamani-Nia who was speaking to Shana, the petroleum ministry’s news agency, underscored that NITC has been removed from the list of sanctions following the implementation of JCPOA. “NITC activities go on as usual now” he added. Zamani-Nia however didn’t deny the EU court’s ruling but explained that “NITC is currently trying to prove that it has been sanctioned unreasonably.” He said that this issue pertains to the period before the implementation of the JCPOA, but didn’t give further elaborations.
A brief note as explanation: The EU Council on 15 October 2012 imposed restrictive measures against NITC with the aim of preventing nuclear proliferation.
About two months later, NITC lodged a complaint at the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice asking for the annulment of the October 2012 EU Council statute. On July 3rd 2014, The EU Court voted in favor of Iran and annulled the EU Council’s Oct.
2012 decision. Since the EU
Council didn’t appeal against the court ruling, NITC was officially removed from EU sanctions list.
However, on 12 February 2015, the Council of EU again included NITC on the list of persons and entities subject to restrictive measures on the basis of a new statement of reasons. Per the Feb 2015/236 decision, in the
statement of reasons, the Council of EU argued that:
“NITC provides financial support to the Government of Iran through its shareholders the Iranian State Retirement Fund, the Iranian Social Security Organization, and the Oil Industry Employees Retirement and Savings Fund, which are State- controlled entities. Moreover, NITC is one of the largest operators of crude oil carriers in the world and one of the main transporters of Iranian crude oil. Accordingly, NITC provides logistical support to the Government of Iran through the transport of Iranian oil.”
In response NITC filed another complaint at the EU court of Justice but this time, the court ruled in favor of the Council of European Union. NITC wrote an appeal to the ruling then, and all
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developments occurred before the implementation of the nuclear deal in January 2016.
Having quoted some Petroleum Ministry lawyers, Fars News wrote on Saturday that this EU
restriction against NITC will not come into effect as long as the two sides respect and implement the JCPOA, but it will come into effect only if the JCPOA is violated.
Donyay-e Eghtesad, an Iranian newspaper with reformist- moderate leaning wrote on Sunday that the EU Council’s decision won’t affect NITC status because according to the JCPOA, the name of NITC has been removed from the list of EU sanctions.
The public relations office of the Ministry of Petroleum has issued a statement saying that “courts are not entitled to legislate and that making decision on sanctions is only within the jurisdiction of the Council of EU.” Meanwhile, NITC issued an official statement late on Sunday –covered by Shana news agency—and argued that
“with regards to the
implementation of the JCPOA, NITC has been removed from the list of sanctions and is no longer n the list of US and EU sanctions, and imposing any new sanction that according to the JCPOA has been lifted is an apparent breach of the nuclear deal.” NITC also terms the news covered by Fars News and other hardline media
outlets as a “twist of truth” which is “against national interests” and accuses such media outlets of trying to “misrepresent the facts”.
An Iranian private business delegation to visit Germany and Austria
The Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Mine (TCCIM) is going to dispatch a business delegation to Germany and Austria in line with the agenda of developing commercial
relations with the European countries, the daily Donyay-e Eghtesad wrote on Monday. The delegation will be led by TCCIM President Massoud Khansari and is scheduled to visit the two
countries from 20-25 November to negotiate with the businesspeople of Steiermark and Kärnten in Austria and Bavaria in Germany.
The areas the Iranian delegation is reportedly interested in for
negotiations include machinery and industrial equipment, auto and auto part industry, renewable energy, environmental
technologies, medicine industry and medical equipment.
Khansari has predicted that the Iranian economy will emerge out of recession this year though the amount of the growth rate
wouldn’t be significant. According to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA), Khansari has expressed concern about the low rate of economic growth rate in Iran which has caused teeming
unemployed youth in the country
and that this phenomenon would get worse in the next coming years.
