Polimeks gold case and things much larger

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Polimeks gold case and things much larger

Tariq Saeedi

Ashgabat, 26 Mar—The Turkish media reported last month that on 22 February a consignment of gold, destined to be carried by a Turkmenistan Airlines aircraft to Ashgabat was intercepted.

Polimeks, the foremost Turkish company in Turkmenistan, was the owner of the consignment.

In a media statement, Polimeks asserted that it was not a case of gold smuggling.

This is a plausible statement because the gold was purchased legally from the Istanbul Gold Refinery and there are no restrictions on the export of gold from Turkey. The confiscation may possibly have been caused by either some kind of misunderstanding or some procedural flaw.

The related story can be found here: Polimeks Refutes Accusations Of Gold Smuggling

http://turkmenistan-diaspora.com/280/polimeks-refutes-accusations-of-gold-smuggling.html

Erol Tabanja, the CEO of Polimeks, said in the press statement that “the gold was meant for purchases of construction materials in countries where cash transfers were unavailable due to international embargo.”

He did not mention the country/countries but it is clear that the only country under such embargo is Iran.

The question that arises here is like this: Do the authors of the moronic sanctions understand what they are doing? Do they have the ability to see beyond their nose, assuming that they can somehow see the tip of their nose?

Iran has quite a few things, not just oil, to offer —– the countries that want to do business with Iran will find a way to do so, sanctions or no sanctions, bank transactions or no bank transactions, insurance cover or no insurance cover.

One such way is to do the trade in the old fashioned way; gold for goods.

Here are the top 20 countries in terms of gold reserves. IMF and European Central Bank are not countries as such but they are mentioned in the list to give context to the picture.

Top 20 Gold Reserves

Data from Wikipedia

For the last year or so, countries that want to trade with Iran, have been doing so with the help of gold. The figures given in the table above are from December 2010. This ranking is most certainly in need of revision.

In 2010, Iran earned US $ 77 billion from its export of oil. The prevailing price of gold is US $ 49.863 million per ton. If Iran manages to sell only half of its oil volumes in return for gold, it would amount to addition of about 680 tons of gold to its reserves for every year of sanctions.

In a simplistic and deliberately dramatic statement, we can say that it would take about 11 years of sanctions to make Iran the largest holder of gold reserves.

Should it be a source of worry? — We shall return to it in a minute.

Meanwhile, it is important to keep in mind that within three years or so, China is poised to overtake the USA as the largest holder of gold reserves. In a couple more years down the road, it would be the largest economy in the world.

Simultaneously, IMF is planning to shed about 5% of its gold reserves.

It is also essential to remember that the people in China and India (currently 11^th largest holder of gold reserves) are traditional hoarders of gold in the form of jewelry etc.

Russia, currently number 8 on the gold list, can go on a buying spree if the idea clicks gold reserves could be the answer to the tyranny of dollar and the manipulative practices of the US-led banking system.

It is just the matter for someone to put two and two together.

If the countries that are absolutely tired of the American machinations, most notably China, Russia, Iran, India, Venezuela and dozens of others, decide to pool their gold reserves and then call the bluff, this would be the real start of a new world order.