S. Korea Launches Inter-Agency Team to Expand Humanitarian Trade with Iran

South Korea launched an inter-agency team on Friday to help expand its humanitarian trade with Iran that had been restricted by US sanctions against Tehran, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said. Lee Seong-ho, the deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, presided over the inaugural session of the team consisting of officials from the ministries of finance, industry, agriculture and maritime affairs, and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, reported Yonhap.

The launch came after South Korea sent US$500,000 worth of medicine to Iran to treat a hereditary disease late last month in the first such humanitarian exports to the Middle Eastern country since the United States tightened anti-Iran sanctions last year. Washington gave the green light to such exports in April based on its General License No. 8 – a mechanism to authorize certain humanitarian transactions with Iran even if they involve the Central Bank of Iran, which is subject to US sanctions.

South Korea also seeks to export to Iran coronavirus diagnostic kits and other supplies – worth US$2 million in total – later this month.

“Humanitarian trade with Iran gives an opportunity for our export enterprises at a time when international trade has contracted due to the coronavirus pandemic and can contribute to addressing the health care problem in Iran, with which our country has long maintained friendly ties,” Lee said. “Thus, there is a need to actively expand humanitarian trade with Iran,” he added.
At the session, participants discussed ways to expand trade to cover agricultural and food products, address difficulties facing South Korean businesses and link South Korean firms with their partners in Iran.

Calls for the resumption of humanitarian trade with Iran have been rising as Tehran has had difficulty securing medical items and other supplies critical to fighting the COVID-19 scourge due to US sanctions. Amid tensions between the US and Iran, Seoul has faced a tough balancing act in trying to maintain both the long-standing security alliance with Washington and its economic partnership with Tehran. - Iran Daily