The Donald Trump administration slightly eased sanctions on Iran today to allow for trade in medical supplies and food as Tehran struggles to respond to the coronavirus outbreak throughout the country. The Treasury Department issued a general license exemption for trade in humanitarian goods through Iran’s central bank. At the same time, the United States and Switzerland finalized a humanitarian trade agreement, which provides assurances for the Swiss to export humanitarian goods to Iran without fear of incurring US sanctions penalties.

“The Swiss Humanitarian Trade Agreement (SHTA) will help ensure that humanitarian goods continue to reach the Iranian people without diversion by the regime,” said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. “We thank our Swiss counterparts for their dedicated efforts in establishing SHTA and we look forward to our continued collaboration.”

Why it matters: The new humanitarian sanctions exemption could help Iran deal with the rapid coronavirus outbreak even as Tehran continues to deny the scale of the problem, arresting and warning dozens of citizens for discussing the pandemic online.

“I think there’s some political liability to having designated the Central Bank of Iran and to have [the Trump administration] perceived as cutting off humanitarian trade with Iran,” said Tyler Cullis, a counsel specializing in sanctions law at Ferrari & Associates. “I would assume that was going to accelerate with the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran and they could resolve an issue that they themselves created by issuing a license.”