7th Banking and Business Forum Iran Europe Berlin 18 – 19 October 2018

With effect from 6th August, the Trump administration has renewed the first round of sanctions on Iran. Even though the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had repeatedly confirmed that Tehran was complying with the “atomic deal”, formally known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Trump administration has decided to pull out of the nuclear agreement.

With this first tranche of unilateral US sanctions, the US administration wants to build up a maximum of pressure on Tehran, the sanctions affect a wide range of products – from carpets to health care and the automotive industry. Washington also hopes that Iran will hence be forced to keep off the conflicts in the Middle East.

The second round of US sanctions will come into force on November 4, 2018, it will target Iran’s energy sector and the banking industry.

The US sanctions on Iran have an enormous impact also on European companies – non-US firms are facing substantial fines and will eventually be cut off from the global financial system. The risk seems too high for European companies, and we can already observe their withdrawal from the Iranian market.

The EU wants to keep the deal and is trying to find ways of how to avoid the US sanctions. The following topics will be discussed:

– Geopolitical and geo-economic conditions
– Impact of the second stage of the US-sanctions
– Snap Back: Now what?
– EU’s Blocking Statute to protect European companies
– New channels for payments
– The importance of the Euro in the future