Germany, France and the United Kingdom announced Jan. 31 that they had established a channel for trade with Iran that circumvents U.S. sanctions. The system, known as the instrument in support of trade exchanges (INSTEX), will facilitate commerce between European businesses and Iran. INSTEX will be a state-owned trade intermediary based in France, managed by a German, run by a British-based supervisory board and all overseen by the European Union. Meanwhile, countries outside the bloc, such as India, China or Russia, may be able to join later. Under INSTEX, an Iranian enterprise will be able to sell its products in Europe and receive credit to buy European goods. In the beginning, trade will focus on food and medicine, which do not face U.S. sanctions, and likely benefit small and medium-sized European enterprises the most. Iran, however, still needs to set up its counterpart to INSTEX, and that could take months....
