Iranians prepare for life after sanctions

Tehran

For book lovers at a recent exhibition in Tehran the "Buy Direct From Amazon" poster summed up their plight: if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. 

Iranian consumers, unlike millions who use the US online retail giant's global websites every day, cannot click and buy. Besides lacking credit cards, they are sealed off from international banking because of sanctions.

But if their pockets are deep enough, there is another way: Iranian middlemen, who profit from smuggling in a black market of highly desirable goods. The removal of sanctions under Iran's nuclear deal with the West is bad news for them, but they've long had it good.

At the Tehran Book Fair it wasn't Amazon that was advertising but a local firm offering the latest English-language best-sellers -- bought and sold on at around three times the original online price.

The same applies to other Western goods, be it smartphones, cosmetics or clothes. Traders, lacking open competition, jack up prices and cash in on demand.

For Mohammad Gholi Yousefi, an economics professor at Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran, the nuclear agreement can only be positive, bringing better deals and more choice. 

"The economy is like a phone line and the more countries you have a connection with, the better trade can be," he said.