Anti-Iran Embargo Exacting a Heavy Price on US Companies

Bank Embargo Keeping Iran from Paying for Already-Delivered Merchandise

The various anti-Iran sanctions and embargoes had any number of unforeseen consequences like the massive spike in the price of bratwurst for sausage-hungry Germans. The latest round, which effectively cut off Iran from all international banking, is having major consequences.

US companies doing business with Iran, no matter how mundane, are now finding it next to impossible to get paid for the products they already delivered. Redmond, Washington-based American Pulp & Paper, for instance, is owed $3.8 million for raw material for diaper manufacturing. The companies involved now have no way to pay them for those materials, or to buy future materials from them.

From small paper companies to major pharmaceutical companies, this is the common story. Iranians can no longer buy American or European products, and what they already bought they aren’t being allowed to pay for.

Iran’s state-run industries are less affected by the move, with many of them turning to barter deals and transactions in gold. It’s an inconvenience, but not the crippling calamity that it is for Iran’s private industry, which once again is being harmed by sanctions that were supposed to center on the nation’s government.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.