European Union officials will seek exemptions for European companies from sanctions the U.S. plans to impose on Iran, The Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The EU in its bid to save the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran and six other countries will have to convince European companies including French oil producer Total SA FP, -0.21% and defense contractor Airbus SE AIR, -1.52% to continue investing in and making deals with Iran in the face of threats of extraterritorial U.S. fines, the report said. France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was quoted as saying he’ll suggest “exemptions” and “grand-fathering measures” for existing agreements when he and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin talk this week. The U.S. sanctions are expected to go into effect in the next three to six months, and are tied U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision Tuesday to pull out of the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and the U.S., the U.K., China, France, Germany and Russia. “The lifting of nuclear-related sanctions is an essential part of the agreement,” the EU said in a Wednesday statement. “The EU has repeatedly stressed that the sanctions lifting has a positive impact on trade and economic relations with Iran,” the bloc said. Sanctions by the U.S. would include keeping oil produced by Iran from entering global markets.