What does exclusion from the dollar system mean?

Washington threatens exclusion from the dollar system for “anyone who favors Iranian money laundering”: a sign that the war between the US and Iran is moving to an economic level. This is what the US Treasury Secretary declared on Monday 24 August, Scott Bessantwhich warned other countries.

But what does it mean to be excluded from the dollar system, or in any case to suffer restrictions in accessing the greenback? It means, in fact, being in theinability to use American currency and the international circuits that revolve around it to carry out global economic transactions and consequently have great difficulties in foreign trade.

The influence on the world economy

This is not a trivial matter: the dollar, in fact, is the main foreign currency with which most raw materials are priced and tradedstarting from oil and gas. So it is crucial to use it to buy and sell these types of goods on a global scale.

Exclusion from its system is mainly implemented by blocking payment circuits (such as the Swift system, ed.) and access to banks: therefore the banks of the isolated country they can no longer make international transactions or transfers in dollars with the rest of the world. Furthermore, a chain effect is also created: international financial institutions that continue to do business with the ‘sanctioned’ entities risk, in turn, being cut off and suffering the retaliations threatened by Bessent.