The United States has decided to exempt South Korea and six other countries from financial sanctions on Iran’s oil trade.

In a statement issued Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she determined that South Korea, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan “have all significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran.”

She said those seven countries now join eleven other countries that earned exemption in March from financial sanctions on Iran’s oil trade.

Clinton said she will report to Congress that sanctions pursuant to Section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 will not apply to the seven countries’ financial institutions for a potentially renewable period of 180 days.

The U.S. government passed last December the National Defense Authorization Act which restricts countries importing oil from Iran from carrying out financial transactions with the U.S. beginning June 28th.

The U.S. also devised a measure that exempts from the sanctions countries that have significantly reduced crude oil purchases from Iran.