On Friday 31st January, 2020 the United States lifted sanctions on one of two units of the giant Chinese tanker company COSCO, the Treasury said, partially reversing its punishment to the company for transporting Iranian oil after China raised the issue in trade talks with Washington.
According to a notice posted on the US Treasury Department’s website Jan. 31 in Washington, sanctions were removed. Last September 25th, restrictions were placed on the Dalian units of China COSCO Shipping Corp., sending freight rates soaring as traders cancelled charters linked to the parent company. Four other Chinese entities were also sanctioned.
A U.S. official said lifting sanctions on only one of the COSCO subsidiaries would allow the Trump administration to retain leverage on China and push COSCO to stop taking Iranian oil. China is the world’s only major importer of Iranian oil despite sanctions Trump unilaterally reimposed on Tehran’s petroleum exports in 2018 after withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.
Trump hopes the sanctions will also limit Tehran’s ballistic missile program and influence across the Middle East. Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes meanwhile Chinese customs data showed last Friday 31st January, 2020 that China took in 14.77 million tonnes, or 295,400 barrels per day, of Iranian oil in 2019, about half the imports of 2018.
All images of the 2009 built bitumen tanker PING HAI WAN underway offshore Malta last Tuesday 6th August, 2019.
Photos by Capt. Lawrence Dalli. Do not use these images without my permission. © All rights reserved. Malta Ship Photos & Action Photos – www.maltashipphotos.com
Published – Sunday 2nd February 2020
