UAE businesses face obstacles with Iran: reports

Business appeals to Dubai to ease Iran trade curbs

 DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Business leaders have appealed to the Dubai government to ease restrictions on trade with Iran imposed after the latest international sanctions on the Islamic republic, media reports said on Tuesday.

The business leaders, who made the appeal during a Monday meeting with deputy ruler of Dubai Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, said curbs on finance and letters of credit made it difficult to trade with Iran even in food and commodities not covered by the June 9 U.N. sanctions, Gulf News daily said.

They complained of "facing obstacles when importing, exporting and re-exporting with Iran due to restrictions imposed by banks," the English-language daily reported.

Businessmen, including exporters and importers of foodstuffs, building materials and medicines urged the government to "intervene to mitigate losses incurred by the trade sector," the official WAM news agency said.

Iran's ties with Dubai have drawn scrutiny from the United States and other Western nations seeking to isolate Tehran over nuclear activity the West fears is aimed at developing bombs. Iran denies the charge.

The UAE and Iran are close trading partners, though they have a dispute over the ownership of small Gulf islands now controlled by Iran.

Gulf News cited UAE-Iran Chamber of Commerce statistics as indicating trade between the two countries peaked at $12 billion in 2008, then fell to eight billion the following year.

"The level of trade is expected to come down to $6 billion this year," the newspaper said.

The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions in June over Iran's controversial program of uranium enrichment, which many Western states believe masks a covert bid to make a nuclear bomb, a charge Tehran denies.

Sanctions against Iran by the European Union and the United States have increasingly made it more difficult for Iran to transact and trade goods.

Restrictions by banks included non-opening of permanent credits and the provision of the necessary finance to meet contractual obligations, the businessmen told Sheikh Maktoum.

"The traders also discussed with Sheikh Maktoum trade barriers they are encountering in regards to U.N.-approved re-exports of foodstuff, goods and commodities," WAM said.

Iran and the UAE have close economic and historic relations. Tens of thousands of Iranians live and work in trade hub Dubai and elsewhere in the UAE, many of them involved in the multi-billion-dollar re-export trade to Iran.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/11/09/125439.html

Many Iranians live and work in the UAE, many of them involved in the multi-billion-dollar re-export trade to Iran (File)