Trade official says JCPOA reduced risk of trade with Iran

Tehran, Nov 2, IRNA – The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which took effect in 2015 helped improve trade risk with Iran bringing Iran to Group 5 of risk assessment by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Iranian trade official said on Monday.


Arash Shahraeini, a member of the board of directors of the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran, made the remarks in an interview with IRNA correspondent as OECD has recently released a new risk classification of the world countries.

OECD divides world countries into seven different groups in terms of risk of investment, he said, adding that the low-risk countries are put in Group one and as the risk of trade with a country increases, it is placed in the next groups.

The official said that after the end of the Iraqi-imposed war on Iran in 1988, Iran was placed in Group six and its classification even improved at a time to be placed at Group four so that the country attracted a large amount of foreign investment to implement economic development projects.

However, in its next classifications, the OEDC reduced Iran’s position in the list and put the country in Group seven, Shahraeini said.

Although this demotion was compensated after the JCPOA put into practice in 2016 and Iran’s place improved by two steps to be placed in Group 5, the OEDC once again placed Iran in Group seven in its last year risk assessment of world countries after the US unilateral exit from the multilateral accord which made it much difficult for Iran to engage in trade deal with other countries, the official said.

Iran still remains in Group seven in the new OECD classification of the counties which was recently released, he added.

He said that if Iran and the US engage in a fresh round of negotiations and the US decide to come back to the JCPOA in the next six months, Iran’s risk assessment could improve significantly and Iran will be able to regain its place in Group five.

Translated by: Ahmad Mohammadi

Edited by: Safar Sarabi