INSTRUMENT IN SUPPORT OF TRADE EXCHANGES (INSTEX)

Dec. 8, 2019

Six new European countries – Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden – joined to the INSTEX barter mechanism.

About:

Type: INSTEX is a European special-purpose vehicle (SPV)
Objective: To circumvent U.S. sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar.
Headquarters: Paris, France
Established in: January 2019.
Owner: France, Germany and United Kingdom are the founding members of INSTEX.
Who can join it? It’s purpose is to facilitate "legitimate trade" with Iran for any EU member and has been conceived to be open to non-EU countries.
Functioning:
- INSTEX functions as a clearing house allowing Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange. The system has not yet enabled any transactions.
- In Iran, INSTEX is mirrored by the STFI (Special Trade and Finance Instrument), a similar SPV. STFI matches incoming and outgoing transactions in the same way.
- As of now, the use of the SPV is limited to humanitarian purposes, such as the purchase of otherwise embargoed foods or medicines.