The French automaker Renault, that left Iran last September due to the US sanctions, could come back to Iran in the future, an Iranian official says, dismissing there have been any new negotiations with the company.
"Renault has invested a considerable amount in Iran and is waiting what will happen to the [unilateral US] sanctions," Farshad Moqimi, Deputy for Industrial Affairs at the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade said on Friday, adding "according to our analysis, this automaker will come back to Iran in the future."
The official’s remark comes following reports that Renault is coming back to the Iranian auto industry after it was forced to suspend its production in the country following the restoration of secondary US sanctions last November.
"The French company Renault has invested some one billion dollars in Iran and given the volume of its activities so far, it will certainly get back to Iran after the situation with sanctions becomes clear,” Moqimi noted on Thursday night.
He could be referring to 2020 when US President Donald Trump's four-year mandate comes to end. In case he doesn't secure a second term, the US could get back to the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), from which Trump Administration walked out last May.
There are already democratic voices in the US that have called on Washington to remove reimpsoed sanctions on Tehran by getting back to the deal. The Democratic National Committee passed a resolution in February calling on the US to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal, a sign that the party’s 2020 presidential candidates will run on returning America to the landmark pact.
Also, 50 retired US generals and diplomats have called on Washington to rejoin the deal. "Reentering the Iran nuclear deal advances the United States’ national interests by ensuring these benefits persist and enables us to work more closely with our European allies in ensuring that Iran never obtains nuclear weapons."
Back in August 2017, following months of negotiations, Renault signed a deal with Iran's Negin Khodro and the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) worth 660 euros (780 million dollars, according to that year exchange rate). Under the agreement, Renault promised to produce as many as 150,000 additional cars a year in Iran. The deal was immediately branded as the "largest foreign auto deal in Iran’s history."
The official had earlier talked about "a mechanism that has been considered for this french company to restore manufacturing in Iran." However, he has dismissed that Iran has been in talks with the car manufacturer to resume production, stressing that "according to our analysis Renault will come back to Iran."
That "mechanism" could refer to the European Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), also known as Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), that has been created and registered as a state company at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance Ministry in Paris. The channel, however, isn't functional yet. It's President Per Fischer was recently in Iran to hold talks with Iranian stakeholders to work out its details.
But that mechanism is said to be strictly limited to the trade of essential non-sanctioned commodities and goods, whose exports to Iran have been hampered by the US punitive measures that have targeted banking ties with Iran. Pharmaceuticals, medical devices and agri-foods are the three main categories that are expected to be traded through this company.
Following the US unilateral walkout form the 2015 international nuclear treaty with Iran, Russia, China, as well as Germany, France and the UK, Renault, like many other foriegn companies that had flooded back to Iran after the deal was signed, were forced to remove their capital from Iran. However, at that time as well, the French carmaker said it would maintain its presence in Iran. 'We will not abandon it, even if we have to downsize very strongly,' Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said at the annual shareholders' meeting in Paris last September.