The economic expert on Sky News, when asked about how Europe could skirt American sanctions, shrugged that if the EU simply switched payments for oil and gas to Euros rather than dollars, it would not only get around the sanctions but also greatly damage the US economy in a massive own-goal for the Trump administration.
I don't know or understand the in's and out's of it all but the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Germany, and Iran had agreed to work out practical solutions in response to Washington’s move and have come up with switch payments to the Euro for its oil purchases from Iran, eliminating US dollar transactions and avoiding the Trump administration sanctions.
Oil is pegged to the US dollar on international markets, making it difficult for Iran’s partners to make payments for crude and for Tehran to receive them. With the dollar playing the leading role on international financial markets, re-imposing sanctions would mean cutting Iran off from the global financial system.
At the same time, dozens of contracts signed between European businesses and the Islamic Republic could be at risk of cancellation if Brussels obeys Washington’s sanctions. This would damage Iran’s economy and European firms would lose a huge market in the Middle East. Switching to alternative settlement currencies allows both sides to continue trading despite US sanctions and nullifies the threats from the White House.
Everybody wins, except Trump's America so that's okay then as he continues down his track of Making America Not So Great Again.
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