Corporate Canada is poised to capitalize on Ottawa’s planned lifting of sanctions against Iran, with oil and gas companies and aerospace firms in particular looking to the Middle East nation to help offset the deep challenges hitting their industries.
Though most Canadian corporations remain hesitant to talk publicly about Iranian opportunities as long as sanctions remain legally in place, lawyers specializing in international trade and investment say their phone lines have been busy with business people seeking advice about the country.
“Interest is very high,” said John Boscariol, a trade specialist with McCarthy Tétrault in Toronto, whose clients include companies involved in oil field services and extraction technology.
“When you think of it, aerospace and oil and gas especially are suffering in this country. And we’re talking about an emerging market of 80 million people in the Middle East that are highly educated, young, highly motivated. This is going to be a huge light, I’d say, on a desolate landscape in the international economy.”
Petroleum Services Association of Canada president Mark Salkeld said his members are showing increasing interest in Iran and that the association “has met with a couple of delegations from Iran in preparation for this outcome.” He declined to say which companies are involved.
Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion said earlier this week that Canada will act “in a speedy fashion” to remove economic sanctions against Iran and normalize relations. But he gave few details of the steps to be taken beyond a plan to reinstate permission to sell civilian aircraft into the country. A number of Canadian allies such as the European Union and Australia have already moved to lift sanctions against the Islamic republic to varying degrees.
Engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has worked in Iran in the past on humanitarian projects funded by international financial institutions, said spokesman Louis-Antoine Paquin. He would not say whether SNC would seek to do business there again, explaining that for reasons of competitiveness the company does not publicly divulge its interest in specific markets.