Pandemic negatively affects Sweden-Iran trade: envoy

Swedish Ambassador to Tehran Mattias Lentz has blamed the coronavirus pandemic as the main reason for the decline in the trade between Iran and Sweden expressing hope that with the outbreak easing the two countries would resume trade at normal levels.

Lents made the remarks in a meeting of the Iran-Sweden Joint Chamber of Commerce in Tehran on Thursday, the portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) reported.

The meeting was attended by officials and businessmen from the two sides including Lentz, and the Head of Iran-Sweden Joint Chamber of Commerce Abdolreza Rezaei.

Speaking in this event, Rezaei stressed the need to develop trade cooperation between the two countries, saying: "facilitating the issuance of business visas by the two sides will be a good step for developing the trade relations between the two countries."

“The Swedish embassy should be able to accelerate this process and support the businessmen by providing better facilities for members of the Iran-Sweden Joint Chamber of Commerce,” he stressed.

Lentz for his part noted that the Swedish embassy has always made every effort to facilitate the promotion of trade and the development of economic relations between Iran and Sweden.

“But the current problem is the closure of the embassy’s visa section due to the outbreak of the coronavirus since March,” he regretted.

"We hope that the coronavirus outbreak can be controlled as soon as possible so that trips to the European Union can be made; In that case, we will do our best to issue visas for businessmen; unfortunately, this is not possible until 2021,” he said.

Sweden was one of Iran's top trading partners in Europe, which had reached a good level of trade relations after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between Iran and world powers, however, with the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, the restrictions led to a significant decline in the two sides’ trades.

source: TehranTimes