half over the past two years with the UAE decision to enforce sanctions to the letter.
Iran is still one of the UAE’s closest trading partners, with around $8 billion in bilateral trade in 2009 after a peak of $12 billion in 2008, according to figures provided by the UAE-Iran Chamber of Commerce. But the Gulf News daily newspaper says the scale of trade is expected to come down to $6 billion this year after US sanctions have been imposed.
An estimated 400,000 Iranians live in the UAE, with around 8,000 companies with Iranian executives registered. Many of them are involved in the multi-billion-dollar trade deals between the two countries. And they aren’t happy at the decline in trade.
Since June 9, when the UN Security Council slapped a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, the UAE has asked banks and financial institutions to freeze 41 accounts linked to Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs and greatly tightened banking oversight of trade. Gloom has settled over trading with Iran.
While all trade in food products is exempt from the sanctions, some 25,000 companies registered in the UAE which have done business with Iran for over four decades have lost 40 per cent of their business because Iranian banks are affected by the sanctions.
The UAE has closed down more than 40 companies in a crackdown on money-laundering and sales of equipment with possible military uses linked to Iran.
The Tehran Times quoted the head of the Iranian Business Council last month as saying that trade between the UAE and Iran is near “a standstill” because local banks “are going beyond UN sanctions to prevent almost all transactions tied to the Islamic Republic.”
Businessmen have appealed to the Dubai Government to intervene and ease restrictions, Gulf News reported.
The appeal was made on Monday by businessmen and traders during a meeting with Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai.
The businessmen and traders in the export and import sector, trading in food, medicines, building materials and auto spare parts, have complained that they were facing obstacles when importing, exporting and re-exporting with Iran due to restrictions imposed by banks in terms of opening letters of credit and finance so as to fulfill their contracting obligations with their partners.
The businessmen appealed to the government to facilitate finance. They said they face problems even when they re-export food and commodities that are licensed by the United Nations.