Iran, Iraq to Benefit from Stronger Economic Ties

Iran and Iraq should invest in joint projects to further increase and strengthen economic ties, Head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al-e Eshaq said on Saturday, adding that both Tehran and Baghdad will benefit from a rise in their bilateral trade.

In an interview with FNA, this morning, Al-e Eshaq said that joint investment is needed for promoting and enhancing trade between Iran and Iraq, adding that there is no worry about the situation of trade between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq.

Joint investment between the two countries should be taken into consideration for the development and promotion of bilateral trade ties, he stressed, and pointed to the future of trade ties between Iran and Iraq due to the recent unrest overshadowed Iraq.

“There is no doubt that the more this bilateral ties are strengthened, the more will it be for the benefit of the two countries,” he underlined.

Statistics show that Iran enjoys high capacity for exporting $20 billion worth of products to neighboring Iraq, he emphasized.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Al-e Eshaq put the products exported from Iran to Iraq in the past year (ended Mar. 20, 2019) at $13 billion, so that targeting for export of $20 billion worth of non-oil products to Iraq is achievable.

Presently, Iran-Iraq ties is an unconventional trade relation, he said, adding, “Although $13 billion worth of products is exported to Iran, export volume of products from Iraq to Iran is negligible.”

Iraq enjoys good capacities for joint investment in the field of power plant, refinery and food industries, Al-e Eshaq added.

Last Sunday, Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture released the statistics for the first seven months of the current Iranian year of 1398 (from March 21, 2019, until 22 October 2019), highlighting that Iraq was one of the three top trade partners of Iran where 58% of the Iranian exports were destined for.

The report added that China, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been respectively the top three destinations for Iran’s exported goods in the first 7 months of the current local calendar year.