Earlier this year, the bank had said it was working on a project
to finance French companies that wished to export goods to Iran
despite U.S. sanctions.
"It's put on hold," said Nicolas Dufourcq, Bpifrance's chief
executive. "Conditions are not met (...) Sanctions are punitive
for companies."
Bpifrance was working on establishing euro-denominated export
guarantees to Iranian buyers of French goods and services. By
structuring the financing through vehicles without any U.S.
link, Bpifrance thought it was possible to avoid the
extraterritorial reach of U.S. legislation.
Dufourcq's latest comments show how the scope of the sanctions
is making trade with Iran increasingly difficult for European
companies.
The United States is renewing sanctions on Iran after
withdrawing from a nuclear deal forged in 2015 between Tehran
and world powers. Washington reimposed some of the financial
sanctions from Aug. 6, while those affecting Iran's petroleum
sector will come into force from Nov. 4.
Even though several European countries have said they are
seeking to protect their companies from the sanctions, several
major companies including oil company Total <TOTF.PA>, Air
France-KLM <AIRF.PA> and British Airways <ICAG.L> have announced
they would suspend activities in Iran.
German officials have in recent weeks advocated for the creation
of an independent system for cross-border payments to make trade
with Iran possible even with the U.S. sanctions.
European Union diplomats have said U.S. President Donald Trump's
positions on trade and on Iran were fuelling a rethink about the
EU's dependency on the U.S. financial system.
However, European countries appear to be struggling to find or
agree on effective options to tackle the issue.
(Reporting by Matthieu Protard and Inti Landauro; Editing by
Sudip Kar-Gupta, Luke Baker and Toby Chopra)
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