ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Imports from neighboring Iran into autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan doubled in 2012, as businessmen took advantage of the declining value of the rial due to international sanctions, according to data from the Kurdistan Region.
The enclave’s import-export department said that more than 2,000 Kurdish companies import goods from Iran, and that more than one million tons of food and household goods were imported last year.
Kurdish businessman Muhammad Ahmad says that last year alone he imported 260,000 bicycles and toys from Iran, up 50 percent from the previous year. He said he makes a larger profit importing from Iran because of the falling value of the rial against foreign currencies, especially the US dollar.
US-led sanctions have targeted Iran’s banking and key oil sectors to force Tehran into negotiating on a nuclear program it insists is peaceful, but which Western states suspect is aimed at building an atom bomb.
Sabir Khoshnaw, a Sulaimani-based businessman, says that he imports more than 1,000 tons of Iranian products every year, and that the cost for the same goods would be higher by about $400 per ton if imported from Dubai or Turkey.
Kurdistan is also a transit point for foreign goods that eventually find their way into Iranian markets.
Businessman Rahim Omer says that in the1990s electronic goods were brought into Kurdistan from Iran, but that now the trend is reversed.
“Iranian businessmen purchase electronic goods, especially satellite devices, in the markets of Kurdistan instead of China due to lower tariffs,” he said.
