Macron rules out trade war as firms exit Iran
SOFIA: French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday ruled out any trade war with the United States over its withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal as a wave of European companies quit business with Teheran, fearing the global reach of US sanctions.
European Union leaders united behind the 2015 accord and Brussels announced it would launch a legal process banning EUbased firms from complying with the sanctions. However, corporations face the choice of trading with the biggest economy in the world, the United States, or with Iran, risking sanctions and fines as well as losing access to the dominant US financial system.
Macron acknowledged the predicament of firms wanting to trade with Iran or invest there, but made clear bigger matters were at stake.
‘‘We won’t start a strategic trade war against the US about Iran,’’ he said on arriving for a second day of a European Union summit in Bulgaria.
‘‘We’re not going to take countersanctions against US companies; it wouldn’t make sense.’’
French energy group Total said on Thursday it might quit a multibilliondollar gas project in Iran unless it secured a waiver from the sanctions. Teheran had repeatedly hailed the project as a symbol of the nuclear accord’s success.
‘‘The French president is not the CEO of Total,’’ Macron said. ‘‘My priority is not trade or finance in Iran. It’s geopolitics, avoiding escalation, doing everything to open up Iran’s economy and society.’’
EU officials say there is no easy way to protect EU firms and banks from the US sanctions that Trump has reimposed and some big names are already heading for the door.
As Macron spoke in Sofia, the world’s largest container shipping firm, A.P. MollerMaersk, said it would quit Iran.
Soren Skou, A.P. MollerMaersk’s chief executive, said his firm would have to accept the sanctions.
‘‘With the sanctions the Americans are to impose, you can’t do business in Iran if you also have business in the US, and we have that on a large scale,’’ he told Reuters.
‘‘I don’t know the exact timing details, but I am certain that we’re also going to shut down.’’
Italian steel manufacturer Danieli announced it had halted work on finding financial coverage for orders it won in Iran worth ¤1.5 billion ($NZ2.57 billion).
Finnish mining technology company Outotec said US sanctions would slow down and complicate its ties with Iran but it was too early to say if it would leave.
European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker said the EU executive would today launch the process of activating a ‘‘blocking statute’’ — legislation banning EU companies from complying with US sanctions on Iran, but the EU will have to swim against a strong tide as companies retreat.
The statute has never been used until now and EU financial services commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis believes it could be ‘‘of limited effectiveness’’.