Eliminating the Dollar from Trade with Tajikistan is Not Feasible; Financial Transactions for Traders are Impossible

The head of the Iran-Tajikistan Joint Chamber of Commerce has announced that eliminating the dollar from trade between Iran and Tajikistan is not feasible, and currently, financial transactions for traders are impossible. Mohammad Hossein Roshanak told the government news agency ILNA that due to Iran's sanctions, exporters are operating under non-Iranian titles in Tajikistan. Roshanak emphasized that 'eliminating the dollar from trade between Iran and Tajikistan requires the establishment of infrastructures that are currently lacking, and stabilizing this process would take about two decades; if Iran is removed from sanctions, this solution would no longer be effective.' According to this private sector activist, while governments may be able to exchange the currencies of the two countries, 'doing this for private sector traders is not feasible.' The elimination of the dollar from Iran's economy was one of Ali Khamenei's directives to Ebrahim Raisi's government, and the economic team of the government has repeatedly emphasized this issue. Khamenei stated on the first day of the current year in Mashhad that it is necessary to reduce the government's role in the country's economy and move away from the dollar, saying, 'One of the problems in our economy is our dependence on the dollar. Some countries that have been sanctioned have cut their dependence on the dollar, and their situation improved; we must do the same.' The government's insistence on eliminating the dollar from Iran's economy comes despite experts and private sector activists deeming the elimination of the dollar from the economy as impossible from the outset. In this context, Mehdi Rang Rona, the vice president of the Iran-India Joint Chamber of Commerce, also criticized the approach to eliminate the dollar from Iran's economy on August 21, stating that in international transactions where Iran is one side, 'the likelihood of transaction blockage increases.' These statements from private sector activists and the emphasis on the impracticality of eliminating the dollar from economic exchanges come while Islamic Republic officials continue to insist on this issue. In this regard, in July of this year, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, announced the complete elimination of the dollar in transactions between Iran and Russia in an interview with the 'RT' network, but at the same time, Iranian merchants did not confirm this issue. Abdullah Mohajer Darabi, the vice president of the Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce, reacted to this by stating that Iranian traders are still forced to use the dollar in trade with Russia. Ebrahim Raisi's government was supposed to start eliminating the dollar from transactions with Russia, but no success has been achieved in this regard yet. In another move, the government converted budget dollar figures to euros, but ultimately all transactions are conducted in dollars, and the elimination of the dollar has only been done on paper, by converting it to euros. Dollar de-dollarization remains ambiguous; a member of parliament states that we want dollars more than anything. A member of the Chamber of Commerce: 'Dollar de-dollarization' is ideological. The Deputy First of Raisi's order for 'dollar de-dollarization' in sports; prohibition of 'dollar' contracts with foreign athletes and coaches.