Human Rights and the Trade Relations between Iran and the European Union

Human rights is a norm adopted by the European Union that should be observed by the third parties with whom the union shall expand relations. This has made human rights a precondition for deepening of relations with Iran and particularly signing the TCA. In other words the European Union has tried to build a direct link between human rights observation and increase of trade relations with Iran. This paper studies such a link in three eras of Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khatami and Ahmadinejad. The main question is what imprint human rights has left on the trade relations between Iran and the European Union. Having the data of the volume of trade between the two parties in the three mentioned historical eras, the hypothesis is that for European Union human rights is an instrument serving political purposes with respect to Iran. In other words, unlike what the European Union claims human rights has no direct link with the trade relations with Iran. The increase in the volume of such relations in times of the alleged human rights violations in Iran is an indication to that.