Iraq imports 70% of its requirements from the foreign countries, especially neighboring states, said the head of the Iraqi Chamber of commerce Jaafar al-Hamadani.
Although Hamadani did not mention that how much the imports cost the treasury but they are guessing to engulf more than half of the county’s oil revenues.
Hamadani stated this following with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmad al-Wakeel, who is visiting the country in order to enhance the mutual trade exchange.
Hamadani also assured that they did not tolerate any obstacles, which come between the trade with Egypt and Egyptian goods.
Baghdad dealers say that more than 1000-km long international border with Iran is open for the flow of goods ad people and the range and volume of Iranian exports has rushed forward dramatically in the past few months.
A Baghdad shopkeeper, Jassim Hussein said that Iranian goods, including food items, fruits, vegetables and also industrial products are cheap and available even to the low-income Iraqis.
Though some traders have complaints about some low quality Iranian good, but Wisam Hassan and another shopkeeper denied this saying that the low quality do not come from Iran but from China or other countries.
Hassan was presenting a picture in front of the reporter of how affordable the imported goods for Iraqis are. He said that he was selling 1 kilogram of Iranian tomatoes for 250 dinars, approximately 10 U.S. cents, or a dime.
The economist Isam al-Mahaweeli believes that the trade with Iran is in Iraqis’ benefit and so the government should not stick to western sanctions on Tehran. He also added that Iraq has got ample faith on its neighbour countries than that of the western countries. In the meantime, the country should not mix the politics with trade. Sanctions against Iran are unfair and that certainly creates problem for the ordinary people of Iraq instead of government.
Azzaman
26 November
