US Positive about S. Korea's Push to Build Mechanism for Humanitarian Trade with Iran

The United States "positively" views South Korea's push to forge a payment mechanism to conduct humanitarian trade with Iran without fears of violating US sanctions on Tehran, a diplomatic source said Monday. Seoul and Washington have been in consultations over the envisioned Korean Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (KHTA), though discussions on specifics have been slow due to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The KHTA uses an Iranian bank free from US sanctions, such as the Middle East Bank, to enable humanitarian transactions with Iran, which has been suffering from shortages of medicine, medical equipment and quarantine supplies due to the biting sanctions.

"The US has positively viewed Seoul's push for the KHTA as it is a model akin to the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA)," the source told Yonhap News Agency, referring to a payment method designed to facilitate Swiss companies' sales of food and medicine to Iran. "Despite its positive stance, the US has not been able to move swiftly on this matter due to domestic situations related to the pandemic, but discussions have moved forward to some extent," the source added.

To restart humanitarian trade with Tehran, Seoul has also been pushing to harness the SHTA and the US government's General License No. 8 -- a mechanism to authorize certain humanitarian transactions with Iran even if they involve Iran's central bank, which is subject to US sanctions.

Though humanitarian exports are not subject to sanctions, South Korean firms had difficulty resuming their sales of medicines and other products to Iran due to concerns that they could be affected by the American sanctions.

Also, South Korea said Sunday that it has provided about US$1 million worth of coronavirus test devices and other help to Iran as part of efforts to support its fight against the global pandemic.
The assistance was granted to an Iranian state-run medical research institute as a token of humanitarian support and friendship between the two countries, according to the South Korean Embassy in Teheran. This was in addition to Seoul's provision of about US$200,000 worth of assistance to Iran last month, including coronavirus test devices and spray-type disinfectant. Iran has so far reported around 120,000 cases of coronavirus infection, with its death toll standing at some 7,000. - Yonhap, Korea Herald