Earlier in August, the vice minister of Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade and the president of the country’s trade promotion (TPO) noted that the first official import order was successfully placed with cryptocurrency, citing that the use of cryptocurrencies for payment and smart contracts on foreign trade by the Iranian government will expand widely by the end of September to target countries.
Following the news, the Iranian importers’ association has highlighted the need for a stable crypto regulatory framework in the country.
Iran import association seeks crypto regulation
The chairman in charge of Iran’s importers’ group and a representative of foreign firms (Imports Association), Alireza Managhebi, spoke about the country’s crypto regulatory affairs on Saturday.
He cleared that a stable crypto regulatory framework should be established for the successful and fair usage of cryptocurrencies for payments in the import sector. He added that crypto could be useful and helpful in this regard (import), hence the need for the right regulatory infrastructure. “Our main and most important concern is that this new method cannot be exploited by some people.”
Managhebi detailed that the main concern about the situation is to be sure if the government has provided permanent, stable, and flexible regulatory frameworks to govern crypto usage as payment for imports in Iran and be harmless to active businesses existing in the digital field.
Iran heavily sanctioned by US gov’t
He recalled that a few months ago, the Iranian government previously announced the usage of cryptocurrencies as a method of payment for imports. Claiming this would stop the dollar dominance is unacceptable in Iran because both currencies have their own places in Iran’s market.
Iran is a country with multiple slams of sanctions. The embargoes are mostly from the US and other world-leading countries, payment services, crypto exchange companies, and several counts of different firms in regard to its support for Hezbollah Hamas, and Palestine Islamic jihad.
Major international Payment services like PayPal don’t operate in Iran because of the sanctions and the world-leading Crypto exchange company Binance which sanctioned Iran in August 2019, alongside other countries such as Cuba, Syria, North Korea, and Crimea.
