May 17, 2019
The Islamic Republic has finally created its trade body for evading US sanctions and funding trade with Europe. Called the Special Trade and Finance Institute (STFI), it is the Iranian mirror for the EU’s Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX).
STFI was formally registered April 30, a full three months after the EU set up INSTEX.
It isn’t clear what took Iran so long to act, but that didn’t stop the Islamic Republic from charging the EU with dragging its feet on trade.
There have still been no trade transactions through INSTEX and STFI. And it remains unclear when—and if—there will ever be any transactions.
Even Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif joined in attacking Europe. He lashed out at Europe for malingering on trade. He made that comment April 14, more than two weeks before Iran created STFI, without which Europe could not conduct any transactions. Since then, numerous other Iranian officials and Majlis deputies have piled on, accusing Europe of being the problem behind the lack of trade.
When the EU set up INSTEX, it stated in writing that no transactions could begin until the Islamic Republic adopted all the regulations of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) governing international financial transactions and designed to spike criminal and drug transactions.
The Islamic Republic has still not acted on the last two of FATF’s standards, which have been sitting before the Expediency Council for months.