NCRI Staff
NCRI – According to Press Club, in an article about the economic relations of France with Iran the French La Dépêche Info site wrote: “The high optimism of French investors fell after the arrival of Donald Trump and the threat of US sanctions.”
Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States a year ago raised fears of U.S. trans-boundary sanctions. The French have not forgotten about $9 billion penalty for BNP Paribas bank in 2014 due to a violation of American laws and sanctions against Iran and other countries.
Julien Marcilly, chief economist of Coface insurance and credit company, believes that the conditions in relation to Iran have changed much compared with the high optimism of 2015 and 2016 at the time of the partial lifting of sanctions. He adds that many French companies are waiting for the conditions to be clearer until they can make a decision.
This site continues to write: Olivier Babo, a professor of economics at the University of Bordeaux, recently published an article in Concorde’s think tank, warning that “while France seems to continue to encourage companies to invest in and develop in Iran, it should also think about whether this work benefits our companies and people of Iran?”
The site goes on to highlight the possibility of increasing US sanctions against Iran after the recent deadline of US President for nuclear deal reform, and addresses the initiative of the French public finance bank, BPFrance, according to which the figure is set to be one and half billion euros credit allocated to French exporters to Iran. Nevertheless the stakeholders such as Ludovic Subran, Chief Economist at Euler Hermes insurance and credit company, the investors are fearful about increasing the range of US sanctions in the future to the area of information and data control.