British companies have been severely affected by the economic sanctions imposed against Iran, Head of Iran-UK Chamber Of Commerce, Lord Norman LaMont said in a meeting with the Iranian parliamentary delegation in London on Tuesday.
"The British traders are eagerly waiting for the technical issues to be resolved and business relations between the two countries to resume," IRNA quoted LaMont as saying.
LaMont, a British politician who served in successive governments as member of parliament for nearly two decades, had voiced his opposition to the economic sanctions against Iran on multiple occasions before, warning that they would impact businesses in the UK.
Addressing the Tuesday meeting in London, head of the Iran-Britain Parliamentary Friendship Group, Abbas Ali Mansouri Arani underlined the opportunities for investment in Iran’s oil, gas, energy, mineral and transportation sectors.
Noting that a large number of foreign companies have expressed interest in the Iranian market for investment, he urged British companies to seize the opportunities in Iran. “The existing difficulties should not hamper the development of trade between the two countries.”
The four-member Iranian parliament delegation travelled to London this week for a 5-day official visit upon the formal invitation by Jack Straw, head of Britain-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group in Britain’s parliament, who had headed a British Parliament delegation to Tehran in January, 2014.
Germany Eyeing Iran’s Market
Meanwhile, President of the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade (BGA), Anton Boerner addressing a press conference on Tuesday said: “Germany is eager to boost trade relations with Iran after a possible lifting of sanctions.”
“Germany and Iran have had a long history of good business relations for more than a century and we are hoping to be able to return to the golden days of trading with Iran once the sanctions (imposed against Iran over its nuclear energy program) are lifted,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Boerner’s remarks about the future of Iran-Germany trade relations comes as the latest report published by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office indicated that Germany’s exports to Iran jumped by more than 30 percent in 2014 to reach €2.4 billion ($2.59 billion), following a partial easing of sanctions after an interim deal was reached between Iran and the P5+1 countries (five permanent members of UN Security Council plus Germany) in Geneva in late 2013.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is traditionally Iran’s most important trading partner in the 28-nation European Union. Germany’s exports to Iran over the past year included mainly machinery and equipment, agricultural products and pharmaceuticals.
This is while according to authorities in the German chambers of commerce, there is still huge potential for increasing business interaction with Iran. Deputy chief executive of the German chambers of commerce , Volker Trier had expressed hope earlier that trade turnover between the two countries could reach “a two-digit number in billion euros.”
