Iran Agrees To Swap Tea For Debt, Reviving Barter Trade To Avoid Sanctions

Iran Agrees To Swap Tea For Debt, Reviving Barter Trade To Avoid Sanctions

In this picture taken on July 31, 2021, a labourer works at a tea plantation in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka ... [+] (Photo: ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images) Iranian officials have signed an agreement with Sri Lanka which will enable the South Asian country to pay off its debt to Iran via tea exports. Iran's deputy trade minister Alireza Peymanpak signed a memorandum of understanding on the proposal with the Sri Lankan plantations industries minister Navin Dissanayake earlier this week in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. The barter deal resurrects a tactic often employed by Iran in the past to try and get around international sanctions, although proposed deals often break down before they can be implemented. It is also helpful for Sri Lanka, which has suffered from the collapse of its tourism industry during the Covid-19 pandemic and is experiencing a debt and foreign exchange crisis. Officials at the Sri Lanka Tea Board had previously floated the idea of a tea-for-debt swap in 2018, with a plan for the CPC to pay the country's tea producers for any exports to Iran. Sri Lanka Tea Board chair Lucille Wijewardena said at the time that the debts were the equivalent of