Iran, China use their currencies for joint trade exchange

Iranian Minister of Economy and Finance Masoud Karbasian announced yesterday that Iran and China are using their national currency for a joint trade exchange.

According to the official IRNA news agency, Karbasian said: “Four memorandums of understandings have been signed with China, including one that was signed by the Iranian Ministry of Economy with China’s Infrastructure Development Organisation, and which provides for the utilisation of their financial resources for joint investment and the use of their currency in trade exchanges.”

The Iranian minister pointed out that there is a road map in which the share of either side of the trade exchange was drawn.

He added: “The second memorandum of understanding provides for technical and scientific cooperation in addition to another which was signed regarding cooperation in the field of financial and bond markets.”

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The fourth memorandum of understanding, according to the same source, provides for bilateral cooperation in the field of combating drugs and organised crime.

Karbasian continued: “The two sides discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in various economic fields, including banking cooperation, oil and petrochemicals, as well as increasing the extent of trade exchange.”

China is the largest importer of Iranian oil, and the United States has threatened to impose fines on it as a part of sanctions it has threatened to levy on Iran after it pulled out of the nuclear deal signed between Tehran and the P5+1 countries.