This is truly astonishing. The "special purpose vehicle" which will be created by Britain, France and Germany in order to maintain trade with Iran is likely to resemble a form of bartering trade. ft.com/content/f69563…
The intent of this vehicle is something that I've covered before. Rather than risking sanctions upon its central banks, Europe intends to bypass these sanctions with a company designed not to trade with the US.
However, what is being suggested here is that even this isn't viable. It appears that Europe has come to a staggering realisation - in order to avoid the reach of the dollar, they must avoid money outright. 
As the article argues, this really highlights the weakness of other currencies in relation to the dollar, something which has Brussels on the back-foot. As Juncker highlighted last week, the EU imperialist bloc intends to attempt to meet this challenge.
A hugely significant development in terms of how the EU intends to do this is contained in the FT article. One strategy being employed in order to begin decoupling the euro from the dollar is to pay for all oil trade with Russia in euros.
This embeds Germany's Nord Stream 2 project within one of the strategies being used to consolidate the EU imperialist bloc. This link is now a focal point in the struggle between US and European imperialism.
Of course, Trump has already offered significant criticism of Nord Stream 2 and his attempts to sabotage are not yet over. That he was gunning for it in the manner he was yesterday is significant.
This is by no means the only method that the EU will need to employ in order to bolster the euro. As the FT article makes clear, there are still huge steps for Europe to take before it can compete and plenty of time for the US to attempt to quell such attempts.
The divisions between US imperialism and the EU imperialist bloc are becoming increasingly severe. What these moves signify is that Europe is attempting to arm itself financially for economic conflict with the US. The battle is on.
