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French car manufacturers take the United States in the race for the Iranian market.
The lifting of sanctions against Tehran gave the French car manufacturers the opportunity to restore the Iranian lucrative market, but they could find themselves overwhelmed by US rivals.
Iran will be hoping that the lifting of sanctions - agreed as part of the historic agreement on its nuclear program reached this week in Geneva - will bring with it a much needed boost to the economy.
But foreign companies around the world are also set to benefit from a recovery in trade with Tehran, particularly in France automakers, hoping to exploit the opportunity to sell again cars in Iran.
French automakers used to be among the leading players in the Iranian market, but they have suffered a lot in recent years of Western sanctions on trade.
PSA Peugeot Citroën has counted once Iran as its second largest market after France, the displacement of more than 400,000 vehicles a year by selling cars in kit Iran Khodro Iranian partner for assembly in Iran.
France other major automaker, Renault meanwhile, has sold more than 100,000 cars in the country in 2012, also assembled locally.
But PSA was forced to withdraw from the Iranian market in 2012 - officially because the Iranian bank used by the manufacturer to manage its profits in the country has been put on a blacklist of the United States.
But many industry experts suspect that the output was also the result of the pressure on the French company by the US giant General Motors car owner of an interest of seven percent in PSA since February 2012 and having links with the influential US anti-Iran lobby United against nuclear Iran.
Renault has followed suit in 2013, wrote his Iranian activity after a new round of sanctions imposed by Washington.
On Monday, a Renault welcomes the lifting of restrictions on trade with Iran.
Renault is satisfied with the signing of this agreement, which should allow sanctions to be lifted if the sanctions are lifted, our business is now idle could return to normal, a spokesman for the company told AFP .
It is good news for us because the Iranian market is important to us, she added.
But while the lifting of sanctions will give the French automotive companies the ability to recover in Iran, they may find that they return to a more difficult market than they left, particularly because of increased competition from American rivals.
In anticipation of thawed relations between Iran and the West, US companies have been probing the Iranian market for some time.
And in a move likely to grate PSA in particular, General Motors has for several months actively courted the automotive industry in the country, including Iran Khodro.
According to the French journalist Georges Malbrunot, GM has even launched an advertising campaign in several Iranian newspapers last year.
General Motors, and exported a number of Camaros to Iran this summer, via Azerbaijan, he wrote in an article for Le Figaro French daily last month.
The company was able to exploit a loophole in US sanctions imposed, which, while prohibiting the export of auto parts in Iran for local assembly, does not prohibit the sale of entire vehicles in the country, said Georges Malbrunot.
This led to accusations by some analysts that the US sanctions deliberately used to remove foreign automakers from Iran to allow its own companies to tap the market after the resumption of trade.
France, the biggest player in the market, was the real target of sanctions, said political scientist and expert on Iran Michel Makinsky in an article for Le Monde earlier this year.
Washington sought to purge the Iranian market in anticipation of reaching an agreement with Tehran over its nuclear program, he said.
That there is a truth to these claims remains open to debate, but most analysts agree that the lifting of sanctions could prove fruitful for the United States, with its well-positioned companies to take advantage of the rapid return to trade with Iran.
Things could move quickly, said in a blog Malbrunot of Le Figaro on Thursday stressing that the Iranian-American Chamber of Commerce is already in place in Tehran.
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